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1                        UNIVERSITY  OFX:aLIFORNIA. 

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HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND  WORKS 

OK 

RUBENS,    VANDYKE,    REMBRANDT,   AND    CUYP 

THE    DUTCH   GENRE-PAINTERS; 

MICHAEL    ANGELO    AND    RAFEAELLE. 

BEING 

M   ^ttit^   of   Mvt  =  ^mntlt^ 

IN  BELGIUM,  HOLLAND,  AND  ITALY. 


By  FREDERICK  WILLIAM   FAIRHOLT,  f.s.a., 

AUTHOR    OF    "  UICTIONARV   OF    TERMS    IN    ART,"    ETC. 


Ellustr.itcb  tuith  (Dnc  |tjunlircJ)  anb  Uliirtu-thrrc  SEooi-rnflvabingi 

at  THi      >Jf^ 

IHIVBRSITTI 

^rPP^'^^         NEW    YORK: 

"XpPLETON    AND    CO.,  BROADWAY. 

1872. 


(s)  diet^s' 


■IVBItSIT?; 
PREFACE. 


T3  ARELY  are  to  be  found  combined  in  one  individual  the 
qualifications  of  the  literary  man,  the  artist,  and  the  archaeo- 
logist. The  last  may  be  able  to  use  both  pen  and  pencil,  yet  the 
latter  only  in  such  a  way  as  to  entitle  him  to  the  character  of  an 
antiquarian  draughtsman  ;  while  the  artist  or  the  painter  may 
have  a  literary  taste,  though  it  is  seldom  called  into  action  ;  and 
he  may  also  have  arrived  at  such  an  amount  of  archaeological 
attainment  as  will  enable  him  to  bring  it  to  bear  upon  his  art,  but 
not  beyond  it.  In  the  late  F.  W.  Fairholt,  however,  these  three 
accomplishments  showed  themselves  in  a  very  remarkable  manner. 
He  certainly  does  not  come  under  the  denomination  of  a  painter, 
for  we  do  not  think  he  ever  used  a  brush  and  colour  since  his 
early  days  when  he  began  life  as  a  scene-painter,  except,  perhaps, 
in  making  a  few  sketches  as  memoranda ;  yet  the  black-  lead  pencil 
in  his  hand  was  an  instrument  employed  to  good  and  profitable 
purpose  in  an  infinite  variety  of  ways — landscapes,  buildings, 
figure -subjects,  and  ornamental  objects  of  every  kind ;  and  it  was 


vi  PREFACE. 

remarkable  for  accuracy  in  all  his  delineations  trom  nature.  His 
art  was  essentially  realistic,  induced  mainly  by  working  much 
on  antiquarian  objects,  which  require  the  utmost  exactitude  ;  its 
aim  was  truthfulness,  and  to  this  he  sacrificed  whatever  mere 
fancy  may  have  suggested  in  the  way  of  rendering  his  subjects 
more  picturesque.  His  eye  and  his  hand  were  so  accurate  from 
long  practice  that  we  have  known  him  to  make  an  engraving — of 
a  coin,  for  example — with  his  etching-needle  on  a  plate,  without 
first  tracing  its  outline  on  the  metal. 

Either  for  pleasure,  for  health,  or  for  literary  and  artistic  pur- 
poses, he  frequently  visited  the  Continent ;  selecting,  generally, 
those  countries  which  he  could  most  advantageously  lay  under  con- 
tribution for  the  joint  action  of  pen  and  pencil — places  peculiarly 
attractive  to  the  artist  and  antiquarian,  either  from  their  historic 
interest,  and  their  picturesque  character,  or  as  the  residence  of 
those  whose  names  are  enrolled  among  the  great  painters  and 
sculptors  of  the  world.  The  Low  Countries,  and  some  of  the 
old  cities  of  Gerniany,  such  as  Nuremberg,  were  his  favourite 
localities  for  a  month's  ramble,  and  he  would  come  back  from 
them  with  a  multitude  of  characteristic  sketches  of  what  he  saw, 
and  with  his  note-book  well  stored  witli  intelligent  comment, 
the  result  of  active  research  ami  judicious  investigation.  Italy 
was,  perhaps,  less  attractive  to  him  than  otlier  parts  of  the  Con- 


PREFACE.  vii 


tinent,  for  his   artistic  sympathies  were   more  in   harmony  with 

the  Gothic   style   ot   art,  especially  as   regards  architecture  and 

all  its  associations,  than  with  the  Classic ;  yet  in  Rome  and  other 

Italian  cities  he  found  much  to  engage  both  mind  and  hand. 

From  materials  gathered  in  different  visits  to  these  countries, 

he  contributed,  at  various  time,  a  number  of  papers  to  the  pages  of 

the   Art-Journal,   which,   from   the   interesting   character   of  the 

respective  narratives,  and  the  graphic  illustrations  from  his  own 

pencil  that  accompanied  them,  excited  much  interest  at  the  period 

of  their  publication.     In  a  collective  form  they  cannot  fail  to  be  as 

attractive  as  when  they    appeared   at   intervals,  if,    indeed,  they 

will  not  be  found  even  more  so.     They  are  abundantly  diversified 

in  subject ;  art  and  artists,  architecture,  scenery,  men  and  customs, 

each  finding  a  niche  more  or  less  capacious  in  the  literary  and 

pictorial   temple.     In   submitting  this  volume  to  the   public,  the 

publishers  feel  assured  they  are  offering  a  work  of  pleasant  and 

instructive  reading ;  one,  moreover,  that  may  serve  as  a  kind  of 

"  guide  "  to  those  who  shall  hereafter  visit  the  localities  of  which 

it  speaks. 

J.  D. 

April,  1 87 1. 


CONTENTS. 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND  WORKS  OF  RUBENS  AND  HIS   SCHOLARS. 

Cologne — Rubens's  parents — His  birthplace — Church  of  St.  Peter — "  The  Three  Kings  of 
Cologne  " — Death  of  Rubens's  father — Removal  of  his  family  to  Antwerp — Rubens's 
masters — He  visits  Italy — Return  to  Antwerp  and  marriage — Builds  a  mansion — His 
chateau  at  Stein — Home  life — His  studio — Political  career — Diversity  of  his  labour — 
Church  of  S.  Carlo  Borromeo — His  assistants  and  pupils — His  second  wife,  Helena 
Forman — Death — Rubens's  chapel  and  monument — His  collection  of  pictures        i — 37 


RUBENS  AND  VANDYKE  :   ART-RAMBLES  IN  BELGIUAI. 

The  Scheldt — Flushing — Warden — Antwerp — The  Place  Yerte — Street  sculpture — Sacer- 
dotal and  lay  costumes — Wood-car^'ing  and  paintings  in  the  Belgic  churches — Prison  of 
the  Inquisition — "  La  Vielle  Boucherie  " — Works  by  Rubens  and  Vandyke  in  Antwerp 
— A  funeral  bier — Banner  of  the  Inquisition — Relic  of  Rubens  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Jacques — Mont  St.  Jean  and  Waterloo — The  Old  Citadel,  Ghent — ^Monastery  of  St. 
Bavon — Specimens  of  old  domestic  architecture — Civic  pageants — The  Antwerp 
giants — Pictures  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Bavon — The  Cathedral  of  Bruges — Trade 
signs 39—97 


THE  MILL  AND  THE  STUDIO  OF  REMBRANDT. 

The  birthplace  of  Rembrandt — His  early  training — Burgomaster  Jan  Six — "  The  Woman 
taken  in  Adultery  "  painted  for  him — The  etching  called  "  Six's  Bridge,"  or  the 
"  Alustard-pot " — Anecdote  connected  with  it — Amsterdam — The  city  buUt  on  piles — 
Substantial  character  of  the  houses — The  Weighing-house — Rembrandt's  house — His 
autograph — Etching  of  *'  Faustus  "  in  his  study — Rembrandt's  pupils — His  genius — 

99—117 

b 


CONTENTS. 


THE  COLTNTRY  OF  CUYP. 

Dordrecht  or  Dort— Birthplace  of  Cuyp — Stirring  events  of  his  early  years — Present  aspect 
of  the  city — The  Grand  Canal — The  dykes  and  windmills — Roosendaal — Goldsmith's 
description  of  the  country — Solid  comfort  of  the  farm-houses — Dutch  kitchens  and 
dairies — Town  life — Dutch  cleanliness — The  Village  of  Broeck — The  pa\*ilion  ami 
garden  of  Mynheer  Bakker — Head-dresses— Wooden  carriages — Dutch  care  of  their 
beasU 119—144 


THE  HOME  OF  PAUL  POTTER. 

The  Hague — Town  Hall — Birthplace  of  Paul  Potter— Political  and  material  condition  of  the 
country — Dutch  "  polders  " — Their  formation — A  picture  of  a  Dutch  seaport  in  1635 
— Laws  of  nature  reversed  in  Holland — Potter's  masterpiece,  "  The  Young  Bull  " — He 
removes  to  Amsterdam — View  of  the  city  in  1639 — His  early  death — Buried  in  the 
Great  Chapel — Character  of  his  art 145  —  164 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS. 

Origin  of  the  term  genre— K<\n3in  van  Ostade — His  place  of  birth — Receives  instruction 
from  Frank  Hals,  of  Haarlem— Character  of  his  pictures — Adrian  Brauwer — His 
eventful  career — Imprisoned  in  the  citadel  of  Antwerp — Released  by  Rubens — Dies 
wretchedly  in  St.  Julian's  Hospital,  Antwerp — Rubens  reburies  him  at  his  own  cost — 
Gerard  Douw — His  "Village  School"  and  "La  Femme  Hydropique" — Elevating 
style  of  his  painting— Jan  Steen— Born  and  died  at  Leyden— Character  of  his  work- 
Careless  and  improvident  life — The  friend  of  Karcl  du  Moor,  Metzu,  and  Mieris — His 
works  depict  the  ordinary  life  of  the  Dutch  of  his  time — Changes  in  village  life  since  his 
days — The  herring  sign — The  birth  token — Stadtholder' s  House,  1635 — Amsterdam 
and  the  Hague,  1635 — Scheveningcn — Metzu,  Mieris,  and  Terburg — Their  "  conversa- 
tion-pieces"— Terburg's  famous  picture,  "  The  Satin  Gown  " — William  Kalf,  painter 
of  still-life  suljccts—  Philip  Wouvcrmans — Character  of  his  works — Backluiysen  and  \'an 
dcr  Vcldc — Their  maiinc  paintings — Summary  of  the  merits  of  the  Dutch  school — 

165—207 


THE  DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FLOWER-PAINTERS. 

Origin  of  landscape-painting — Progress  of  the  art — Kuysdacl — Birthplace-Gloomy  gran- 
deur of  his  pictures— His  scholars — Bcrghcm — Born  at  Haailcm— His  instructors  — 
Style  of  his  paintings— His  pupils — Peter  de  Hoogo,  Dirk  Maas,  and  Aitus  Van  jIci 


CONTENTS.  xi 


Neer — Dutch  still-life  and  flower-painters — John  Breughel,  Daniel  Seghers,  John 
David  de  Keem,  and  Rachel  Ruysch  or  Van  Pool — John  Van  Huysum — Decorative 
gardening  —  Rare  flowers  —  Ancient  style  of  gardening  —  Modern  style  —  Tulip 
manias  .............     209 — 227 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO,  AT  FLORENCE. 

Hero-worship — Pilgrimages  to  spots  sanctified  by  genius — Home  of  Michael  Angelo — 
Situated  in  the  Via  Ghibellina — General  features  of  the  mansion — The  courtyard — 
Rooms  open  to  the  public — Their  contents — Statue  of  the  sculptor — Pictures — Relics — 
Old  furniture — Church  of  Santa  Croce — Michael  Angelo's  tomb  .         .     229—243 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 

Rome — Its  ruins  replete  with  the  memories  of  bygone  time — Revival  of  learning  in  the 
fifteenth  century — Resuscitation  of  classic  art — Lorenzo  the  Magnificent — Cardinal 
Bembo — Early  life  of  Raff"aelle — Goes  to  Rome  at  the  request  of  Pope  Julius  II. — First 
residence  in  Rome — His  works  in  the  Vatican — Leo  X. — Builds  and  decorates  the 
logs:ie  of  Ihe  Vatican — His  architectural  works  in  Rome — Church  of  Santa  ]\Iaria  in 
Navicella — His  scholars  and  assistants — His  death — Buried  in  the  Pantheon — His  last 
residence  in  Rome — Raffaelle's  Chapel  in  the  Pantheon— The  Academy  of  St.  Luke 
claims  to  possess  the  painter's  skull — Doubts  of  the  authenticity  of  the  relic — Search  for 
his  tomb — Its  discovery  proves  that  it  had  never  been  opened — Exhumation  of  his 
remains — Relics  found  in  the  coffin — Public  re-burial 245 — 266 


17  m 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


The  Village  Alehouse,  lv  Adrian  van  Ostade Frontispiece. 


Portrait  and  Autograph  of  Rubens  . 

Birthplace  of  Rubens 

Font  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Cologne 
Figures  from  the  "Emblems  of  Love" 
Courtyard  of  Rubens's  Mansion    .     . 
Rubens's  Summer-house     .... 


RUBENS   AND   HIS   SCHOLARS. 

Pace 

Rubens's  Chateau  at  Stein 19 

Room  in  Rubens's  House 22 

Church  of  S.  Carlo  Borromeo  ....  27 

Rubens's  Chair 30 

Rubens's  Chapel 33 

Rubens's  Monument 34 


Page 
4 


12 
17 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE. 


Vandyke's  House,  Antwerp     ....  41 

"Warden,  on  the  Scheldt 43 

Fort  Lillo 43 

First  View  of  Antwerp  from  the  River  .  44 

Virgin  and  Child 47 

The  Jiladonna  Triumphant 48 

"  Notre  Dame  des  Douleurs  "      ...  49 

Group  at  the  Altar,  Antwerp  Cathedral.  50 

Priestly  Costume 51 

Head-dresses  of  Flemish  Peasantry  .     .  51 

A  Peasant's  Cap 52 

"  Faith,"  Church  of  S.  Carlo  Borromeo.  53 

Wood-carsdng,  Church  of  St.  Augustine.  54 

The  Incredulity  of  St.  Thomas      •     •     •  55 

The  Ecstasy  of  St.  Augustine  ....  56 

Pitying  Angels  •     .     • 57 

Group  from  the  Crucifixion       ....  58 

Prison  of  the  Inquisition,  Antwerp    .     .  61 

The  Prison  Door 62 

Dungeons  of  the  Inquisition      ....  63 
Post  and  Chains  in  the  Cell  of  Exami- 
nation      63 

"  La  Vielle  Boucherie  " 64 

St.  Anne 65 

The  Virgin  and  St.  John 66 

The  Dead  Christ 67 

The  Good  Centmion  and  Mary  Magda- 
len      68 


The  ]Martyrdom  of  St.  John     .... 

Figure  from  the  "  Peste  d'Alost  "     .     . 

The  Two  Thieves  from  Vandyke's  "  Cru- 
cifixion " 

A  Sketch  by  Vandyke 

Group  from  Rubens's  "  JNIiraculous 
Draught  of  Fishes  " 

A  Funeral  Bier 

The  Banner  of  the  Inquisition  .... 

Relic  of  Rubens 

Waterloo 

The  Old  Citadel,  Ghent 

Chapel  in  the  Citadel 

Cloister  of  the  Old  Monastery  of  St. 
Bavon   

Columns  at  St.  Bavon 

Old  Mansion  at  ^lalines 

Gothic  House  at  Louvain 

The  Antwerp  Giants 

Figures  from  Van  Eyck's  "Adoration 
of  the  Holy  Lamb  " 

The  Magdalen,  by  Michael  Coxie     .     . 

Figures  from  the  "  Chasse,"  by  Hans 
Hemling 

AVood-carving,  Bruges  Cathedral 

Madonna  and  Child,  Bruges     .... 

Group  attributed  to  ^Michael  Angelo 

Trade  Signs 


69 
70 


73 
74 
76 

77 
80 
80 
81 

8i 
82 

83 
84 

85 

86 
87 


89 
90 
91 
95 


XIV 


LIST  OF  ILLrSTRATIOXS. 


REMBRANDT. 


Pace 

Rembrnn(li\  Mill        102 

Six's  Bridge 107 

Distant  View  of  Amsterdam,  from  the 
Y  or  Ai 109 


Pack 
St.  Anthony's  Gate,  Amsterdam  .     .     .112 

Rembrandt's  House 114 

Autograph  of  Rembrandt 115 

Faustus  in  his  Study 116 


ViewofDort 

The  Grand  Canal,  near  J>urt 
The  Village  of  Roosend.ial 
A  Dutch  Farm-gate    .     .     . 
Dutch  flayslacks    .... 
A  Stork's  Xest 


CUYP. 

1 2 1  The  Village  of  Broeck 

129  A  Wooden  Shoe    .     . 

131  Dutch  Head-dresses    . 

135  A  Farmer's  AVife   .     . 

135  A  Dutch  Road  Scene 

137  A  Dutch  Horse-shoe  . 


138 
•39 
'41 
141 
142 
'43 


PAUL   rOTTER. 


Portrait  and  Autograph  of  Paul  Potter  .  148 

Town-Hall,  the  Hague 149 

A  Dutch  Polder 153 


A  Dutch  Seaport,  1635 156 

Amsterdam  in  1639 lOi 

The  Great  Chapel,  Amsterdam      .     .     .   ib^ 


THE   DUTCH    GENRE-PAINTERS. 


Portrait  and  Autograph  of  Adrian  van 

Ostade 168 

Dutch  .Scene,  by  Ostade 175 

The  Citadel  of  Antwerp,  1603      .     .     .176 
Gate  of  St.  Julian's  Hospital,  Antwerp .   179 

Ecyden 181 

Hall  of  an  Old  House,  Leyden      .     .     .183 
Tlic  Herring  Sign 189 


The  Birthday  Token 190 

Stadtholder's  House,  Haarlem,  1635      .  191 

Amsterdam,  1635 192 

The  Hague,  1635 193 

The  Road  to  Scheveningcn  .     .     .194 

Gate  at  Haarlem 200 

Portrait  of  Wouvermans 201 

Group  of  Horses,  by  Wouvermans     .     .  J02 


DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND   FLOWER-PAINTERS. 


Portrait  and  Autograph  of  Jacob  Ruys- 

dacl 216 

Street  in  Haarlem 217 


Dutch  Garden,  1653 23^ 

A  Modern  Dutch  Garden 224 

Dutch  Trees 225,  22b 


MICHAEL  ANGELO. 


House  of  Michael  Angelo 233 

Courtyard 235 

(iroup  of  Relics 23O 

Saloon 238 


Writing-closet 239 

Specimen  of  Furniture 241 

Tomb  of  Michael  Angelo,  Church  of 
Santa  Croce 242 


RAFFAELLE. 


Rafracllc's  first  Residence 251 

Church  of  .St.  Maiia  in  Navicella       .     .  256 
The  Pantheon 258 


Raflacllc's  last  Residence 
Ranaellc's  Chapel .  .  . 
The  Grave  of  Rallaelle    . 


•  259 
.  20 1 
.    265 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS    OF   RUBENS   AND 
HIS   SCHOLARS. 


Of  THl^^K 

I7ERSITr] 

HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS   OF   RUBENS 
AND   HIS   SCHOLARS. 


j!N  the  old  city  of  Cologne,  hallowed  by  memories  which 
come  to  us  in  unbroken  succession  from  the  days  of  the 
Romans,  there  arrived,  to  pass  the  last  few  years  of  life, 
the  father  of  one  destined  to  rank  among  the  noblest  masters  of 
art.  John  Rubens,  a  man  of  learning  and  integrity,  had  held 
honourable  office  in  his  native  city  of  Antwerp,  where  he  had 
married  Maria  Pypelink,  a  scion  of  an  old-established  family  there. 
But  peace  had  fled  from  the  Low  Countries  in  the  sanguinary  wars 
which  commenced  between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  factions, 
and  internecine  war  raged  in  the  old  city  on  the  Scheldt.  The 
Reformers,  goaded  to  madness  by  the  arrogance  and  determined 
cruelties  of  Spanish  papal  rule,  rose  t^n  masse,  and  destroyed  the 
monasteries  and  churches,  burning  and  wasting  the  noble  pictures 
and  rich  furniture  of  the  altars,  smashing  the  glorious  windoAvs 
of  the  sacred  buildings,  and  defacing  them  within  and  without. 
These  buildings,  once  the  glory  of  Antwerp,  were  ruined  in 
one  night.  The  Catholic  families  fled  from  a  city  where  the 
emperor's  power  could  not  sufiice  for  their  protection,  and  among 
the  number  were  the  parents  of  Rubens.  They  had  descended 
from  a  Styrian  family.     Bartholomew  Rubens,  the  father  of  John, 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


had   first   visited    Brussels    in   attendance   on    the    court  of   the 
Emperor  Charles  V.  in  1520  ;  had  married  a  Flemish  lady  01  noble 


birth,  and  then  settled  in  Antwerp.     His  son  fled  from  the  city  in 
1566,  and  sought  a  homo  in   the  ancient  city  of  Cologne.     The 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


house  he  inhabited  is  still  pointed  out  to  the  visitor, — it  is  in  the 
"Sternen  Gasse,"  No.  lo;  but  in  that  city  of  tortuous  narrow- 
lanes  the  stranger  may  walk  wearily  and  far  in  a  futile  attempt  to 
find  it  without  a  competent  guide.  The  tall  houses,  the  narrow 
streets,  and  the  tendency  of  the  latter  to  wind  suddenly,  com- 
pletely mislead  a  stranger,  who  cannot  catch  sight  in  their  close 
depths  of  any  friendly  landmark  of  steeple  or  tower  to  guide  his 


Fig.  2. — Birthplace  of  Rubens. 

steps  aright.  The  house,  once  found,  is  easily  distinguished  from 
others  near  it,  as  well  from  its  size  as  from  the  inscriptions  upon 
it.  It  is  a  noble  mansion,  situated  at  a  slight  angle  of  the  street. 
The  carved  door-frame  was  added  in  the  year  1729;  in  a  medallion 
over  its  centre  is  a  portrait  of  Rubens,  and  on  a  shield  above  are 
the  arms  of  Marie  de  Medici.     In  the  year  1822,  two  inscribed 


HOMES,  i/Arx'fs.  axd  works  of 


tablets  were  placed  between  the  windows  on  each  side  the 
doorway,  to  which  attention  was  called  by  large  gilt  stars  above 
them.  One  narrates  the  fact  of  Rubens's  birth  in  the  mansion ; 
the  other,  the  death,  in  the  same  house,  of  ^Marie  de  ^ledici,  the 
widow  of  Henry  IV.  of  France,  the  mother  of  Louis  XIII.,  and  the 
mother-in-law  of  three  sovereigns,  among  them  Henrietta  Maria, 
wife  to  our  Charles  I.,  who  was  by  the  intrigues  of  the  Cardinal 
Richelieu  compelled  to  exile  herself,  living  for  many  years  an 
unhappy  fugitive  in  various  countries,*  and  ultimately  dying  at 
Cologne,  where  her  heart  was  buried  near  the  high  altar,  but 
her  body  removed  to  P'rance.  The  glory  of  the  house,  as  the 
birthplace  of  Rubens,  is  somewhat  saddened  by  the  melancholy 
end  of  this  once-powerful  royal  patroness  of  the  painter.  She  is 
said  to  have  died  in  the  same  chamber  where  he  was  born.f 

In  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  a  few  hundred  yards  from  the  house 
of  his  birth,  the  infant  Rubens  was  christened.  It  still  preserves 
a  certain  picturesque  quaintness,  which  belongs  to  the  past,  and 
does  not  disturb  the  mind  of  one  who  might  dream  he  saw  the 
christening  procession  of  the  baby-boy  destined  to  be  so  great  a 
painter  and  so  distinguished  a  man  hereafter.*     Jolm  Rubens  had 


*  She  lived  for  some  time  in  England,  but  was  compelled  to  leave  it  in  i6|i,  when 
Lilly,  the  famous  astiologcr,  mIio  saw  licr,  dcsciibcs  her  as  an  "aged,  lean,  decrepit,  poor 
queen,  reatly  for  her  grave ;  necessitated  to  depart  hence,  having  no  place  of  residence  in 
this  world  but  where  the  courtesy  of  her  hard  foitune  assigned  it." 

t  The  inscription  on  the  house  informs  us  that  "he  was  the  seventh  child  of  his  parents, 
who  resided  liere  twenty  years;  "  that  his  father  died  here,  and  was  buried  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Peter. 

X  One  of  the  last  acts  of  Kubcns's  life  was  done  in  afleclionatc  mcmoiy  of  the  church  of 
his  baptism,    lie  painted  fur  it  an  altar-piece,  representing  the  Crucifixion  of  St.  I'ctcr,  the 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


iilready  u  son  born  to  him  in  this  good  city  in  tho  year  1574,  but 
his  second  son  was  born  three  years  afterwards,  that  is,  on  the 
29th  of  June,  1577.  That  day  being  the  festival  of  SS.  Peter 
and  Paul,  the  infant  was  carried  to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  and 
christened  Peter  Paul  Rubens,  a  name  never  to  be  forgotten  in  art. 
Let  us  enter  the  cloister,  and  walk  beneath  its  arches  toward  the 
narrow  door  of  the  sacred  building.  Poverty  is  not  without  its 
picturesque  features,  in  the  beggars  that  lean  against  the  wall,  or 
sink  upon  their  knees  beside  the  gate,  awaiting  the  approach 
of  worshippers,  whose  charity  they  then  solicit.  The  group 
inside  the  building  has  an  equally  marked  individuality ;  the 
rich  bourgeois  and  his  family  can  be  readily  distinguished  from 
the  prosperous  farmer,  the  peasantry  are  unlike  both,  as  they  are 
unlike  each  other,  for  the  dwellers  on  this  side  the  Rhine  are  very 
different  from  those  on  the  other  side  of  the  noble  river.  Society 
has  not  here  assumed  the  dead  level  of  English  uniformity.  There 
is  a  local  pride  in  local  habits  which  no  great  modern  scheme  of 
centralization  has  yet  destroyed.  We  see  little  in  the  scene  before 
us  that  might  not  have  met  the  eye  on  the  day  when  the 
unconscious   baby  of  the  Rubens  family  was  formally  admitted  a 


patron  saint  of  the  edifice.  It  depicts  the  martyrdom,  with  the  saint's  head  downward,  and 
is  more  remarkable  for  the  striking  character  of  tlie  scene  than  for  general  merit.  Rubens 
thought  highly  of  it,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  to  his  friend  GiUlorp  talks  of  it  as  one  of  his 
best  works.  But  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  says,  "  Many  i)arts  of  this  picture  are  so  feebly  drawn, 
and  with  so  tame  a  pencil,  that  I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  Rubens  died  before  he  had 
completed  it,  and  that  it  was  finished  by  some  of  his  scholars."  The  picture  was  taken  by 
the  Frencli  to  Paris,  but  has  since  been  restored  to  its  original  place  over  the  altar ;  the  copy 
made  to  supply  the  place  when  it  was  absent  is  that  constantly  exhibited, — the  original  is  at 
its  back.  ...-— rr;  ■ '^». 

'^    or  TTTH  ' 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


iiuniber  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  At  one  corner  of  the 
building  still  stands  the  remarkable  font  in  which  he  was 
christened.  It  is  of  bronze,  shaped  like  a  large  chalice,  and  bears 
date  "Anno  1569'  upon  the  rim.  The  bowl  is  decorated  with  the 
arms  of  the  city — three  royal  crowns  upon  afess — alluding  to  the 


Fig.  3. — Font  in  St.  Pctci's  Ciiurcli,  Cologne. 


heads  of  ll\e  three  Magi,  once  popularly  termed  "  the  three 
Kings  of  Cologne,"  still  preserved  as  a  sacred  relic  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Cologne,  first  brought  there  by  the  Emperor  Frederick 
liarbarossa  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  which  wondrously  enrichetl 
the  city   in   the  middle  ages  Ijy   the   number  of  pilgrims  drawn 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


towards  their  shrine.*  The  summit  of  the  cover  is  decorated 
with  figures  representing  the  baptism  of  the  Saviour  by  St.  John, 
attended  with  angels,  the  sacred  dove  descending  on  the  apex. 

At  the  early  age  of  ten  years  Rubens  lost  the  fostering  care 
of  a  father.  He  had  known  no  other  home  but  Cologne,  but  his 
mother  reverted  to  her  earlier  one  in  Antwerp.  Fearful  scenes  of 
strife  had  been  enacted  in  that  city,  as  Protestant  or  Catholic 
faction  gained  the  ascendancy ;  but  now  the  Duke  of  Parma  had 
subjugated  its  hostile  inhabitants  to  the  Emperor  Maximilian  II. 
and  the  Catholic  faith.  In  1588  the  widowed  mother  of  Rubens 
was  again  located  with  her  family  in  Antwerp.  Her  position 
and  connections  enabled  her  to  place  him  as  a  page,  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  with  another  widowed  lady,  the  Countess  of  Lalaing. 
But  the  life  was  irksome  to  the  lad, — irksome  by  the  very  indolence 
and  irregularity  that  would  be  its  great  charm  to  an  unintellectual 
boy.  Rubens's  father  was  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman,  and  he 
made  his  sons  the  same.  When  Peter  Paul  returned  to  his 
mother's  house  after  a  few  months'  servitude,  she  well  understood 
the  lad's  reasons  for  so  doing  ;  for  she  was  also  no  ordinary  person, 
and  her  affectionate  education  and  wise  council  were  as  lovingly 


*  This  shiine  is  still  one  of  the  most  remarkable  upon  the  Continent.  It  consists  of  a 
case  covered  with  plates  of  silver-gilt,  enriched  with  chasing,  and  laid  out  in  arcades, 
enclosing  figures  of  saints  and  prophets,  and  highly  embellished  with  jewels  and  antique 
sculptured  stones.  The  skulls  of  the  three  kings  repose  within,  and  may  be  seen  from 
an  opening  in  the  centre.  They  are  crowned,  and  have  their  names  formed  in  rubies  on  each. 
Many  of  the  jewels  which  once  enriched  this  shrine  were  removed,  to  support  those  monks 
who  carried  it  to  Westphalia  for  safety,  at  the  time  when  the  French  Republicans  were 
masters  of  the  city  of  Cologne. 


acknowledged  by  her  son  in  after  life  as  any  mother  could  wish  ; 
for  when,  prosperous  and  happy  in  the  palaces  of  Genoa,  the 
painter  was  in  full  enjoyment  of  fame,  profit,  and  pleasure,  he  broke 
away  from  all,  to  hurry  post-haste  to  her  sick-room.  Alas  !  she 
died  before  he  reached  it,  and  the  disconsolate  young  artist  shut 
himself  up  for  four  months  in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Michael,  where  she 
lay  buried,  mourning  thus  long  a  loss  that  was  irreparable  to  him. 
Thanks  to  the  innate  goodness  of  woman — uncorrupted  by 
that  closer  business  connection  with  the  world  which  sometimes 
hardens  man's  heart — there  are  few  among  us  that  cannot  testify 
to  the  loving  care  of  a  mother's  guidance.  There  is  nothing  so 
precious  while  it  remains  with  us ;  there  is  no  loss  so  great  as  that 
loss.  Rubens  always  felt  it  was  to  his  mother's  judgment,  pru- 
dence, and  care  that  he  owed  the  due  appreciation  of  his  intellectual 
struggles.  Freed  from  the  servile  duties  of  a  page,  he  was  placed 
to  study  law,  lliat  he  might  follow  his  father's  profession  ;  but,  as 
he  showed  much  love  for  drawing,  his  tendency  was  indulged  by 
permission  to  relax  his  mind  in  the  art  he  loved.  That  love 
became  a  passion,  and  he  earnestly  petitioned  that  his  future 
profession  might  be  that  of  a  painter.  On  due  consideration,  it 
was  allowed  him  ;  l)ut  ho  was  unfortunate  in  the  selection  of  his 
first  master,  the  landscape  painter  Verhaegt,  with  whom  he  had 
little  sympathy ;  and  still  loss  with  his  second  one.  Van  Oort,  the 
historical  painter,  a  man  of  dissolute  life  and  coarse  manners, 
repulsive  to  a  gentle  and  gentlemanly  mind,  like  that  of  Rubens. 
His  third  master  was  in  every  way  fitted  for  him — a  well-educated 
man,  with  (;lcgant  tastes,  and  kindly  and  refined  nuiiHUTS.      Otho 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


Venius^'^  became  the  tutor  and  friend  of  the  great  scholar  com- 
mitted to  his  charge.  This  artist  was  court-painter  to  the  Arch- 
duke Albert,  the  governor  of  the  Netherlands,  and  he  has  received 
the  honourable  appellation  of  "  the  Flemish  Raphael,"  and  not 
without  reason,  as  his  graceful  pictures  will  show,  many  of  which 
are  the  treasured  decorations  of  the  Antwerp  churches  to  this  day. 
In  that  of  St.  Andrew  are  several ;  the  best  being  "  St.  Matthew 
called  by  the  Saviour  from  the  Receipt  of  Customs,"  it  has  more  of 
Raphael's  simplicity  of  design,  purity  of  colour,  and  unobtrusive 
beauty  than  we  see  in  any  of  his  followers.  He  was  a  very 
perfect  draughtsman,  and  designed  a  large  number  of  book  illus- 
trations.f  To  all  his  early  masters,  therefore,  we  may  trace  some 
of  the  peculiarities  of  Rubens's  manner,  though  his  genius  sur- 
passed them  all  and  was  trammelled  by  none.  His  power  of  land- 
scape painting,  which — unlike  historic  painters — he  occasionally 
practised  for  itself,  and  not  for  his  backgrounds  merely,  he  may 
have  imbibed  from  Verhaegt ;  his  love  of  bold  and  vigorous  colour 
in  figure-painting  from  Van  Oort,  who  was  chiefly  remarkable  for 
that  quality ;  and  his  fondness  for  graceful  infantine  forms  from 
Venius.     We  copy  from  the  "  Emblems  of  Love,"J  by  that  artist, 


*  His  proper  Flemish  name,  Otlio  Van  Veen,  he  had  thus  Latinized,  in  conformity  with 
a  custom  popular  at  that  time  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  which  induced  Gerritz  of  Rotterdam 
to  alter  his  into  that  of  Erasmus,  by  which  only  he  is  now  known. 

t  His  principal  works  are  the  "Roman  Wars,"  engraved  by  Tempesta  ;  the  "Historia 
Septem  Infantum  de  Lara,"  with  forty  spirited  engravings  by  the  same  artist;  a  folio  of 
emblematic  pictures  of  Human  Life ;  and  a  small  oblong  quarto  volume  of  Emblems  of  Love, 
the  most  graceful  and  beautiful  of  all  which  he  designed. 

X  The  original  title  of  the  work  ran  thus,  "  Amorum  Emblemata,  figuris  ceneis  incisa 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


two  figures.  One,  which  he  calls  "  Love  untrammelled,"  has  just 
spurned  a  bridle  on  the  ground,  and  is  flying  upward  joyfully  :  the 
other,  termed  "Contented  Thoughts,"  shows  Cupid  in  a  well- 
cushioned  chair,  contemplating  his  fair  one's  picture  with  secret 


Fig.  4. — "  Love  untrammelled,"  alter 
Otho  Vcnius. 


Fig.  5. — '•Conlenled  llioughts,"  after 
Otho  V'enius. 


satisfaction.  Both  call  to  mind  similar  figures  by  Rubens, 
who  delighted  in  such  quaint  imaginings,  offsprings  of  poetic 
thought. 

Happy  in  the  house  of  a  noble-minded  and  accomplished 
man,  the  scholar-days  of  Rubens  passed  cheerfully  onward.  No 
painter  possessed  greater  industry  than  he,  none  laboured  more 
unceasingly  at  the  technics  of  art;  he  fortunately  had  a  friend 
and  a  master  in  Venius,  who,  less  great  than  liis   pujtil  ultimately 


studio  Othonis  Vaeni.  Antwerpum  venalia  apud  auctorem  m.d.c.iix"  (1608).  Prefixed 
are  recommendatory  Latin  verses  by  Daniel  Ileinsius  and  Philip  Rubens,  the  painter's  elder 
brother.     These  cuts  were  afteiAvards  used  to  illustrate  Oiiarles's  "  Fmblcms,"  London. 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS.  13 

• 

became,  was  naturally  of  more  refined  mind,  and  had  a  purer  and 
less  sensuous  love  of  beauty.  It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the 
utility  of  judicious  control  and  criticism  such  as  he  would  give 
to  a  young  man  like  Rubens,  whose  natural  vigour  and  bold 
conception  wanted  just  such  wholesome  correction  as  Venius 
could  impart.  The  refinement  of  manners,  the  courtier-like  air, 
and  the  cultivated  tastes  of  the  master,  were  all  fully  appreciated 
by  the  scholar :  and  his  example,  no  doubt,  confirmed  Rubens's 
own  love  for  collecting  and  studying  the  best  works,  ancient  and 
modern.  There  is  no  better  instance  of  a  man  w^ho  more  generally 
profited  by  the  experiences  of  life  in  its  upward  and  onward 
course  than  Rubens  presents.  He  may  be  said  to  have  spent  his 
days  in  constant  self-improvement,  so  that  he  became  not  only  a 
great  painter,  but  a  learned  man  ;  not  only  an  artist  of  world-wide 
renown,  but  an  ambassador  from  his  own  sovereign  to  other 
kings,  and  their  companion  and  friend.  Surely  no  man  ever 
upheld  the  artistic  character  more  nobly  than  he. 

Venius  having  fully  instructed  Rubens  in  the  arcana  of  his 
profession,  and  seeing  he  was  as  well  grounded  in  general 
knowledge,  advised  him  to  visit  Italy.  The  advice  w^as  taken,  and, 
in  the  middle  of  the  year  1600,  he  started  on  his  journey,  well 
provided  with  due  introductions  from  the  Archduke  Albert,  who 
already  esteemed  him.  His  journey  lay  through  Venice  to 
Mantua,  where  he  presented  himself  to  the  Duke  Vincenzio 
Gonzaga,  who  received  him  most  favourably ;  and,  on  better 
acquaintance,  offered  to  attach  him  to  his  service  as  gentleman  of 
his  chamber ;  a  position  Rubens  readily  accepted,  as  it  allowed 


14  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

him  full  liberty  of  studying  the  ducal  collection,  then  celebrated  as 
one  of  the  finest  in  Italy.  It  was  this  that  gave  the  painter  his 
peculiar  knowledge  of  antique  art,  more  particularly  as  exhibited 
on  medals,  coins,  and  intaglios,  minor  works  as  regards  size,  but 
often  as  great  in  treatment  as  colossal  marbles.  It  was  this  that 
led  him  in  after  life  to  collect  such  objects  for  himself,  and  it  was 
this  that  gave  him  his  great  facility  in  designing  an  abundance  of 
works  now  comparatively  little  known,  such  as  book  illustrations, 
designs  for  pageantry,  triumphal  arches,  &:c.,  which  he  was  often 
called  on  to  execute ;  and  all  of  them  show  how  his  fertile  fancy 
was  grounded  on  the  best  works  of  the  ancient  artists,  though  he 
never  allowed  them  to  cripple  his  own  native  genius.  His  classic 
tastes  led  him  to  reflect  with  pleasure  on  such  works  as  depicted 
scenes  from  their  history  ;  but  his  native  bias  led  him  to  delight 
chiefly  in  the  gorgeous  richness  of  their  ceremonial  observances. 
Hence  Andrea  Mantegna's  "Triumphs  of  Caesar"*  riveted  his 
attention  most ;  there  was  a  wealth  of  display  in  this  scenic  work 
which  accorded  with  the  young  Fleming's  mind,  and  he  copied 
one  of  the  compartments,  not,  however,  without  some  vigorous 
variation,  the  creation  of  his  own  warmer  imagination.  With 
permission  of  the  duke  he  visited  Rome,  but  necessarily  stayed 
there  but  for  a  limited  time  ;  he  afterwards  visited  Venice,  and  his 
experience  of  the   greatness  of  their  colourists  had    a    strongly 


•  These  pictures  passed  into  the  collection  of  our  King  Charles  I.,  and  arc  still  upon 
the  walls  of  the  jialacc  at  JIanipton.  Outlines  from  ihcm  were  cnj,'ravcd  by  Aiulrea  Aniiivani 
on  wood,  somewhere  aijout  the  year  \(too,  and  in  i«58  Mr.  Henry  Duke  lithographed  nine 
of  them.     They  rank  only  second  to  the  celebrated  cai toons  of  Rall.ulle. 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS.  15 

marked  effect  on  his  after  works.  On  his  return  to  IMantua,  the 
duke  gave  him  the  greatest  proofs  of  his  esteem  and  confi- 
dence ;  he  had  in  Rubens  a  gentlemanly  companion  as  well  as  a 
highly-informed  artist ;  and  he  selected  him  as  the  most  fitting 
person  to  convey  to  the  king,  Philip  the  Third  of  Spain,  a  present 
of  a  state  carriage  and  horses  he  had  obtained  for  that  purpose. 
The  artist  accepted  the  charge  ;  and  became  as  popular  at  the  court 
of  Madrid  as  he  was  at  that  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua.  He  painted 
while  there  several  portraits  of  the  king  and  the  nobles,  and 
returned  loaded  with  presents  and  compliments  to  the  duke,  whom 
he  left  soon  afterward,  to  return  to  Rome,  and  finish  the  commis- 
sion he  had  given  him  to  copy  the  works  of  the  greatest  masters 
there.  Rubens's  elder  brother  Philip  accompanied  him  to  "  the 
eternal  city,"  and  studied  its  antiquities  with  him.  Their  conjoined 
labours  appeared  in  a  volume  ;  the  literary  part  being  by  the 
more  learned  Philip,  but  in  which  Peter  Paul  had  a  share,  and  he 
executed  the  designs  which  embellish  it.  We  have  before  noted 
Rubens's  connection  with  the  press,  which  continued  all  his  life  ; 
and  when  he  left  Rome  and  got  back  to  Genoa,  he  busily  sketched 
the  ancient  buildings  of  the  noble  old  city;  on  his  return  to 
Antwerp  they  were  published  in  a  folio  volume.* 

This  return  to  Antwerp  was  expedited  by  the  melancholy  news 
of  his  mother's  last  illness.  How  it  affected  him  we  have  already 
noted  ;  on  his  slow  recovery  from  the  mental  blow,  he  thought  of 


*  It  comprises  139  views,  and  was  published  in  1622.     A  second  series  was  published 
thirty  years  afterwards. 


i6  irO.VES,  J/ACWTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


again  going  to  Mantua.  He  visited  Brussels,  to  take  leave  of 
his  patrons,  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  and  his  wife  the  Infanta 
Isabella  ;  they  received  him  most  graciously,  and  gladly  welcomed 
him  to  his  country ;  and  he  ultimately  decided  on  staying  there ; 
but,  anxious  that  the  pompous  nothings  of  a  courtier's  life  should 
not  distract  him  from  his  art,  he  decided  on  making  the  quiet  old 
city  of  Antwerp  his  home  ;  and  that  it  might  be  a  home  in  its 
most  perfect  sense,  he  married  the  daughter  of  one  of  its 
magistrates,  Elizabeth  Brant,  and  built  himself  a  house  in  the 
city  of  his  adoption. 

His  marriage  took  place  in  November,  1609;  the  building  of  his 
house  was  not  so  quickly  effected.  The  love  of  Italy  and  its  home- 
life  induced  a  desire  on  his  part  to  construct  his  new  home  more 
in  the  Italian  than  the  Flemish  taste.  He  obtained  a  piece  of 
ground  of  the  guild  of  Arquebusiers,  who  then  possessed  it,*  and 
upon  it  erected,  from  his  own  designs,  a  palatial  house,  such  as 
fell  to  the  lot  of  few  artists  to  obtain.  It  still  exists,  but  it  is 
much  shorn  of  its  exuberant  ornament ;  this,  which  was  its  great 
fault,  was  still  characteristic  of  the  mind  of  its  master,     lie  had  a 


•  The  arranijcmcnl  he  made  willi  Ihcm  was,  that  he  shouM,  in  rctum  for  tlic  l.iiul, 
jiainl  a  picture  for  them  representing  their  patron,  St.  Christopher.  Rubens  seems  to  have 
felt  their  arrangement  as  a  liberal  one,  and  was  anxious  to  carry  it  out  as  liberally  on  his  own 
part.  lie  gave  them  in  return  the  far-fanieil  work,  now  the  glory  of  Antwerp  Cathedral, 
"  The  Descent  from  the  Cross,"  considered  as  his  master-piece.  This  great  picture  is  the 
centre  of  a  large  triptith,  or  doublc-wingcil  altar-piece,  the  wings  acting  as  shutters  to  close 
over  the  picture.  The  back  and  front  of  each  wing  is  painted  in  other  subjects,  the  outer 
ones  exhibiting  the  story  of  .St.  Christopher,  which  would  always  be  seen  when  the  whole 
was  closed.     The  painter  thus  gave  them  five  pictures  instead  of  the  promised  one. 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


n 


taste  for  the  fanciful  combination  of  forms  which  produce  the 
sensation  of  splendour,  and  in  his  works  he  constantly  shows 
a  tendency  to  obtain  this,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  consistency.  It 
was  so  in  his  house  :  and  though  its  details  were  founded  on  the 


Fig.  6. — Courtyard  of  Rubens's  Mansion. 

classic  style  of  the  ancients,  it  was  overloaded  with  the  debase- 
ments of  the  Italian  Revivalists,  upon  which  Rubens  added  his 
own  fanciful  displays,  which  no  architect  would  probably  coun- 
tenance. He  succeeded,  however,  in  defiance  of  rule,  in  "  com- 
posing" a  very  stately  and  highly- decorated  mansion.     It  stands 

■■    -;-■'  D 


iJJTVBRSITr] 


l»«- 


i8 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


in  a  narrow  street  leading  from  the  principal  thoroughfare,  the 
Place  de  Mer,  nearly  opposite  the  Exchange,  and  in  the  best  part 
of  the  city.  The  courtyard  was  connected  with  a  large  garden 
by  a  triumphal  arch  ;  on  the  right  was  the  mansion,  on  the  left 


Fig.  7- — Kubens's  Summer-house. 


the  offices.     We  engrave  this  part  of  the  building,  as  it  affords  the 
best  idea  of  Rubens's  general  taste  in  sumptuous  design. 

The  garden  of  Rubens's  house,  though  confined,  as  all  to\vn- 
gardens  must  be,  was  nevertheless  large  for  its  situation,  and 
comprised  green  alleys,  pleasant  parterres,  and  a  summer-house 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


ig 


he  has  immortalised  in  many  pictures.  The  situation  of  this  struc- 
ture may  be  noted  in  our  view  of  the  courtyard,  llarrewyns  pub- 
lished views,  in  1692,  of  the  house  and  grounds,  and  from  that 
print  we  copy  our  representation  of  this  summer-house,  where 
Rubens  and   his   friends  passed   many  happy  hours.      Like   all 


Fig.  8. — Rubciis's  Clittleau  al  Steiii. 

other  architectural  designs  of  the  painter,  it  is  extremely  fanciful 
— a  style  which  may  be  termed  "  Rubenesque  "  pervades  it ;  but 
it  is  a   style  that  met  with  much  favour  in  the  Low  Countries, 
and  may  be  seen  frequently  repeated  in  Belgium  and  Holland. 
Rubens    also   possessed   the  chateau    at   Stein,  on    the    road 


between  Malines  and  Vilvorde,  a  country-house  equally  fitted  for 
the  residence  of  a  noble.  It  is  a  characteristic  building,  now  fast 
decaying,'  surrounded  by  a  moat,  which  adds  to  its  damp  and 
gloom  ;  but  has  been  immortalized  by  its  master,  during  its  best 
days,  in  several  good  pictures  ;  one  of  the  best,  embracing  the 
rich  view  over  the  fertile  country  obtained  from  its  windows,  now 
graces  our  National  Gallery.  It  must  be  owned  that  Rubens  has 
made  the  scene  a  little  more  poetic  than  it  appears  to  an  ordinary 
eye,  but  he  certainly  studied  for  his  charming  landscapes  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  his  ow^n  residence. 

The  great  Fleming,  now  well  established  in  his  picturesque 
home  in  the  old  city  of  Antwerp,  gave  scope  to  the  tastes  which 
governed  his  mind.  His  house  and  its  appurtenances  had  that 
sumptuous  and  fanciful  style  which  characterized  his  pictures  ;  * 
its  interior  was  further  enriched  by  masterpieces  of  art,  selected 
with  judgment  wherever  he  could  obtain  them  ;  and  in  collecting 
he  was  guided  by  the  advice  of  the  best  men,  who  were  constantly 
aiding  him  to  increase  his  store. 

Rubens's  home-life  has  thus  been  narrated  by  his  biographers  : 
He  rose  very  early,  and  made  a  point  of  commencing  his  day  by 
religious  devotion.  After  breakfasting,  he  went  to  his  painting- 
room,  and  while  at  work  received  visitors,  and  talked  with  them 
freely  ;  or,  in  their  absence,  listened  to  some  one  who  read  to  him 
from    the    pages  of  the   finest  writers,  his   love   for   the   classics 


•  Iloubrakcn  Iclls  u.s  tlial  upon  llic  coiistiiKtion  of  lliis  mansion   Riibcii!.  s|kiiI  f<f),ooo 
(loiins. 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


inducing  him  to  give  preference  to  the  best  Roman  authors,  he 
himself  being  a  thoroughly  good  Latin  scholar.  At  midday  he 
took  a  frugal  dinner ;  for  he  had  taught  himself  to  think  that 
loading  the  stomach  clogged  the  fancy.  By  this  custom  he  was 
enabled  to  go  to  work  again  after  his  meal,  and  continue  till  the 
evening;  and  but  for  this  rule  he  could  never  have  executed  one 
tithe  of  his  commissions.  At  the  close  of  the  day  he  rode  for 
several  miles,  and  on  his  return  passed  the  evening  in  agreeable 
converse  with  the  friends  who  visited  his  house :  they  comprised 
the  best  society  of  the  day,  and  in  their  company  he  would 
examine  and  descant  on  his  fine  collection  of  coins,  prints,  and 
antiques,  or  take  steps  to  increase  it  by  any  means  they  could 
point  out, — for  Rubens  was  an  ardent  "  collector"  and  a  liberal 
purchaser,  esteeming  money,  not  for  itself,  but  for  the  intel- 
lectual pleasures  it  procured  him.  Thus  the  artist  of  princely 
mind  lived  like  a  prince,  except  that  his  courtiers  were  not  the 
self-seeking  parasites  of  courts  in  general,  but  the  friends  who 
loved  him  for  his  own  sake,  and  for  the  pleasure  his  society 
gave  them,  binding  them  by  his  countenance  into  one  brother- 
hood. 

The  print  published  by  Harrewyns,  in  1684,  exhibits  the  studio 
of  Rubens,  at  that  time  converted  into  a  bed-chamber,  and  which 
we  here  copy.  It  is  lighted  from  the  roof.  The  elder  Disraeli 
thus  speaks  of  it :  *  "  This  princely  artist  perhaps  first  contrived 
for  his  studio  the  apartment  with  a  dome,  like  the  rotunda  of  the 


*   "Curiosities  of  Literature,"  vol.  iii. 


22 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


Pantheon,  where  the  light,  descending  truin  an  aperture  or 
window  at  top,  sent  down  a  single  equal  light — that  perfection  of* 
light  which  distributes  its  magical  effect  on  the  objects  beneath. 
This  was  his  precious  museum,  where  he  had  collected  a  vast 
number  of  books,  which  were  intermixed  with  his  marbles,  statues, 
cameos,  intaglios,  and  all  that  variety  of  the  riches  of  art  which 


!■'»>'•  9- — Room  ill  Rubcns's  House. 


he  hud  drawn  from  J-vomc.*  iiut  the  walls  did  not  yield  in  value, 
for  they  were  covered  by  pictures  of  his  own  composition,  or  copies 
by  his  own    hand,  nuuh;    at  Venice  and   Madrid,   of  Titian   and 


•  III  tliL-  appciiilix  t(»  Caiiniitci's  "  rictorial  Notices  of  Vandyke"  is  piiiileil  tlio 
corrcspoiulencc  between  iumseUand  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  ofTering  to  exchanjje  some  of  liis 
own  pictures  for  antiques  in  possession  of  the  latter,  who  was  amb.issador  from  Knyhind  to 
Holland,  and  who  collected  also  for  the  Kail  of  Arundel. 


RUBEiXS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS.  23 

Paul  Veronese.  No  foreigners,  men  of  letters,  lovers  of  the  arts, 
or  even  princes,  would  pass  through  Antwerp  without  visiting 
the  house  of  Rubens,  to  witness  the  animated  residence  of  genius, 
and  the  great  man  who  had  conceived  the  idea.  Yet  great  as 
was  his  mind,  and  splendid  as  were  the  habits  of  his  life, 
he  could  not  resist  the  entreaties  of  the  100,000  florins  of  our  Duke 
of  Buckingham  to  dispose  of  his  studio.  The  great  artist  could 
not,  however,  abandon  for  ever  the  delightful  contemplations  he 
was  depriving  himself  of,  and  as  substitutes  for  the  miracles  of  art 
he  had  lost,  he  solicited  and  obtained  leave  to  replace  them  by- 
casts,  which  were  scrupulously  deposited  in  the  places  where  the 
originals  had  been."  There  can  be  no  higher  compliment  paid 
from  man  to  man  than  was  paid  by  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  after  the 
amicable  exchange  he  made  with  Rubens  of  his  own  antiques  for 
some  of  the  artist's  pictures  : — "  I  cannot  subscribe  to  your  denial 
of  being  a  prince,  because  I  esteem  you  the  prince  of  painters,  and 
of  gentlemen,  and  to  that  end  I  kiss  your  hands."  Such  language 
from  an  ambassador  to  an  artist,  on  the  conclusion  of  a  bargain, 
sheds  honour  on  both. 

Rubens  always  felt  the  true  dignity  of  his  own  character ;  he 
never  forfeited  it  by  any  unworthy  act,  nor  would  he  ever  allow 
it  to  be  lowered  by  any  false  estimate  from  any  source.  When 
John,  Duke  of  Braganza,  afterwards  King  of  Portugal,  desired 
him,  during  his  stay  at  Madrid,  to  pay  him  a  visit,  at  his  famed 
hunting-seat,  the  Villa  Viciosa,  the  artist  accepted  the  invitation, 
and  set  out  with  so  large  a  number  of  servants,  that  the  noble 
duke  took  fright  at  the  expense  so  large  a  retinue  might  impose 


24  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


on  him  ;  and  despatched  a  messenger  to  meet  Rubens  half-way, 
with  an  apology  of  ''  sudden  and  unavoidable  absence,"  on  the 
part  of  the  duke,  and  an  offer  of  a  purse  of  fifty  pistoles  to 
indemnify  the  artist  for  the  expenses  of  his  journey.  Rubens  met 
the  meanness  with  a  dignity  that  reversed  the  position  of  the  artist 
and  the  prince.  "  Give  the  duke  my  most  dutiful  regards,"  said 
he,  "  and  assure  him  of  my  great  regret  at  not  personally  paying 
those  respects  his  invitation  led  me  to  hope  to  do.  It  was  to 
assure  his  highness  of  my  best  services  that  I  set  out,  and  so  far 
was  I  from  expecting  fifty  pistoles  toward  paying  my  expenses, 
that  I  have  already  with  me  one  thousand  such  pieces,  which  will 
more  than  serve  my  need." 

It  was  this  princely  mind,  and  clear  honesty  of  conduct, 
combined  with  the  style  of  an  educated  gentleman,  that  made 
Rubens  the  companion  of  princes,  and  ultimately  an  ambassador 
of  state.  He  had  met  our  Duke  of  Buckingham  in  Paris,  in  April, 
1625,  and  afterwards  at  Antwerp,  in  the  September  of  the  same 
year ;  and  the  intimacy  led  to  the  employ  of  Rubens  in  state 
affairs,  by  the  Infanta  Isabella,  who  had  often  found  his  advice 
useful,  and  felt  that  the  painter  could  negotiate  best  in  her  affairs, 
and  endanger  their  issue  less  than  any  other  person,  as  his 
ostensible  mission  was  art,  not  politics.  lie  conducted  his 
business  with  remarkable  tact.  In  our  own  State  Paper  Office  his 
letters  arc  still  preserved,  and,  in  1858,  they  were  edited  by  IMr. 
Sainsbury.  They  possess  a  high  and  nol)lo  tone,  dignity,  firmness, 
and  cautiousness,  exquisitely  united  to  the  most  polite  courtesy, 
elegant  composition,   and  elevated  sontimont,  and  at  onro  show 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS.  "^^"^^^^^S^is 


the  education  of  the  gentleman,  and  the  mind  of  the  man.  In 
1628  the  Earl  of  Carlisle  met  Rubens  in  the  house  of  Vandyke, 
at  Antwerp,  and  he  has  written  a  very  graphic  account  of  the 
interview  to  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  which  gives  a  good  idea  of 
the  painter's  earnest  diplomacy  in  aid  of  a  peace  between  England 
and  Spain.  The  Abbe  de  Scaglia  writes  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle : 
— "  The  King  of  Spain,  the  more  to  qualify  the  Sieur  Rubens,  and 
to  give  the  greater  reputation  to  his  negotiation,  has  declared  him 
secretary  of  his  privy  council,  a  reason  why  his  Majesty  should 
esteem  him  the  more  and  yourself  also."  All  this  led  to  a  journey 
to  Spain,  after  the  assassination,  in  the  same  year,  of  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham, — that  country's  implacable  enemy, — and  the 
ultimate  happy  settlement  of  a  peace.  Rubens,  on  his  return, 
immediately  started  for  England,  which  he  reached  in  May,  1629, 
in  a  ship  expressly  sent  to  Dunkirk,  by  King  Charles  I.,  for  his 
use.  In  England  he  was  most  honourably  received,  lodged  in  the 
house  of  Sir  Balthazar  Gerbier,  and  all  his  expenses  paid  by 
Charles,  who  knighted  him  on  the  21st  of  February,  1630,  allowing 
him  to  add  to  his  coat  of  arms  a  canton  containing  the  lion  of 
England  :  the  University  of  Cambridge  also  conferred  on  him  the 
honorary  degree  of  master  of  arts. 

His  political  career  ceased  with  the  life  of  the  Infanta  Isabella 
in  1633,  and  he  henceforward  gave  his  undivided  attention  to  art, 
although  Charles  had  offered  him  a  pension  if  he  would  remove  to 
Brussels,  and  act  there  as  political  agent  to  the  English  Govern- 
ment— an  offer  he  at  once  refused,  as  it  would  depose,  or  interfere 
with,  his  respected  friend  Gerbier.     Of  his  industry  in  his  art  we 


^ 


have  already  spoken ;  but  it  took  a  more  discursive  range  than 
among  most  artists.  He  did  not  paint  only,  but  furnished  an 
abundance  of  designs  for  varied  purposes.  One  of  Gerbier's 
letters  tells  of  "  certain  drawings  of  the  said  Sir  P.  Rubens  for 
carving  of  cups,"  intended  for  the  use  of  the  celebrated  collector 
of  art  and  vcrtu^  Thomas  Howard,  Earl  of  Arundel.  He  also 
furnished  numerous  designs  for  books  ;  and  the  productions  of  the 
world-renowned  press  of  Plantyn,  of  Antwerp,  were  frequently 
decorated  with  emblematic  title-pages,  full  of  originality  and 
power.  Like  Raphael,  he  employed  the  best  engravers  to  copy 
his  works  under  his  own  superintendence ;  and  he  drew  upon  wood 
many  good  designs,  fully  aware  of  the  large  renown  that  Albert 
Diirer  had  achieved  by  the  same  process.-^'  We  also  find  him 
working  on  missals,  and  never  avoiding  anything  that  could 
promote  the  general  love  of  art  among  all  classes  of  society.  Of 
his  architectural  tastes  we  have  already  spoken.  He  furnished  the 
design  for  the  fa9ade  of  the  Church  of  S.  Carlo  Borromeo,  at 
Antwerp,  one  of  the  most  striking  relics  of  the  past  grandeur  of 
the  old  city  preserved  for   our   time  :  it  was  constructed   by  the 


*  These  woodcuts  arc  generally  much  larger  than  Diirer's,  but  do  not  possess  that 
cleanness  of  line  and  knowledge  of  pen-drawing  which  Durer's  evince.  They  have  more 
soUd  shadow,  and  their  painter-like  style  has  been  sometimes  aided  by  tint-blocks  printed 
over  them,  after  the  manner  of  the  Italian,  Ugo  da  Carpi.  The  largest  of  his  cuts  is  the 
somewhat  oflcnsive  subject,  Susannah  and  the  Elders  ;  it  measures  22J  inches  in  breadth  by 
17  in  height.  The  next  in  size,  and  the  best  in  treatment,  is  a  Repose  of  the  Holy  Family, 
remarkable  for  the  freedom  and  beauty  of  the  trees  and  landscape :  it  is  a  copy  of  one  of  his 
best  known  pictures.  But  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  is  a  group  of  Fauns  supporting 
Silenus  :  it  is  admirably  rendered.  All  were  engraved  by  Christopher  Jeghcr,  whose  chief 
ability  lay  in  tlie  preservation  of  Rubens's  powerful  chiar'-oscuro. 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


Jesuits,  and  enriched  with  costly  marbles,  taken  by  the  Spaniards 
from  an  Algerine  corsair, — which  was  conveying  them  to  Constan- 
tinople for  the  erection  of  a  mosque, — brought  to  Cadiz,  and  sold 


Fig.  lo.— Church  of  S.  Carlo  Borromeo. 

to  an  Antwerp  merchant.  Rubens  enriched  this  structure  with 
many  fine  paintings  ;  of  these,  thirty-nine  upon  the  vaulting,  the 
subjects  taken  from  sacred  history,  afford  extraordinary  proof  of 


2  8  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

his  talent  at  foreshortening.  They  were  fortunately  copied  by  De 
Witt,  and  afterwards  engraved  by  Jean  Punt,  and  published  at 
Amsterdam  in  1751,  for  the  church  was  almost  destroyed  by  fire, 
occasioned  by  lightning,  in  the  year  17 18 — the  fa9ade  in  part,  and 
the  chapel  of  the  Virgin  adjoining,  are  all  that  remain  as  Rubens 
designed  them.  The  latter  is  exceedingly  picturesque  in  its 
arrangement,  covered  with  paintings,  decorated  with  statuary,  and 
enriched  with  costly  marbles.*  Though  the  architect  may  justly 
consider  the  works  of  Rubens  meretricious,  they  hit  the  popular 
taste  of  the  day ;  and  his  love  of  display,  and  fondness  for 
mythological  embodiment,  led  to  his  employ  by  the  town-council 
of  Antwerp,  when  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  made  their  triumphal 
entry  into  that  city  in  1642,  to  design  the  triumphal  arches,  and 
other  pageants  with  which  the  senate  of  Antwerp  greeted  its 
imperial  rulers  ;  and  they  all  exhibit,  in  a  striking  manner,  the 
painter's  love  for  scenic  effects.  Unlike  Raffaelle,  who  studied 
the  frescoes  of  the  baths  of  Titus,  and  founded  on  them  a  style  of 
ornament  refined  by  his  own  gentle  graces,  the  Antwerp  artist 
saw  only  as  much  in  the  grand  remains  of  ancient  architecture  as 
would  allow  him  to  indulge  in  a  bold  and  bizarre  combination  of 
its    most  striking  features  with    his    own  powerful    imaginings.f 


•  This  church  was  used  as  an  hospital  for  the  wounded  Enghsh  soldiers  aflcr  the  Battle 
of  Waterloo. 

+  His  friend  Gevartius  published  a  noble  folio  volume  descri|)tivc  of  the  preat  doinj^  on 
this  occasion,  with  admirably  executed  i)lates  by  Sandrart  and  IJolswert,  under  Rubens's 
superintendence.  In  tho  public  picture  jjallery  of  Antwerp  are  still  presented  the  orijjinal 
designs  for  some  of  these  gorfjeous  pageants,  boldly  painted  by  the  hand  of  Kubens  himself. 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS.  29 

Though  now  we  test  these  works  by  a  purer  standard  of  taste, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  it  was  necessary,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
popularise  the  style,  and  prune  it  of  redundancies  afterwards. 
Rubens  aided  the  general  movement,  and,  by  gaining  attention 
to  the  picturesque,  paved  the  way  for  a  chaster  study  of  ancient 
architecture. 

In  all  these  labours  he  was  aided  by  many  assistants,  and  his 
school  embraced  the  best  men  of  his  age  and  country,  who,  after 
his  death,  nobly  upheld  Flemish  art.  Rubens  never  disowned 
their  assistance,  or  concealed  its  true  character.  Thus,  in  the  list 
of  pictures  sent  to  Carleton,  he  notes,  "  Prometheus  bound  on 
Mount  Caucasus,  with  an  eagle  which  pecks  his  liver.  Original, 
by  my  hand,  and  the  eagle  done  by  Snyders. — Leopards,  taken 
from  life,  with  satyrs  and  nymphs.  Original,  by  my  hand,  except 
a  most  beautiful  landscape,  by  the  hand  of  a  master  skilful  in  that 
department."  When  not  is  own,  he  notes,  "  by  one  of  my 
scholars,  the  whole,  however,  retouched  by  my  hand."  His 
pictures  have  been  trebly  classified  by  Dr.  Waagen,  as — painted 
by  himself;  by  his  pupils  after  his  sketches,  and  retouched  by 
him  ;  or  copies  of  well-known  pictures  by  him,  similarly 
corrected.  Vandyke  and  Jordaens  were  his  greatest  assistants : 
the  former  stood  alone  after  Rubens's  death,  and  the  latter  enjoyed 
the  reputation  of  being  the  greatest  successor  in  the  master's 
peculiar  style  :  Snyders  took  his  independent  course  as  a  vigorous 
painter  of  hunting-scenes ;  and  his  other  pupil,  David  Teniers, 
the  elder,  struck  out  a  new  path — the  delineation  of  the  manners 
of  the  peasants  of  the  Low  Countries.      They  again   had  their 


30 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


followers ;  and  thus  the  genius  of  Rubens,  like  a  fruitful  tree, 
branched  forth  and  blossomed  over  the  land,  when  its  root  laid 
low  in  the  ground. 

In   the  picture  gallery  of  Antwerp  is  still  preserved  the  chair 
in  which  the  painter  usually  sat.     It   is  mounted  on  a  pedestal 


Fig.  II. — Ruhcns's  Chair. 


within  a  glass  case,  and  appears  to  have  been  subjected  to  daily 
wear,  with  all  that  constancy  with  which  an  artist  uses  a  piece  of 
furniture  to  which  he  is  habituated :  the  leathern  seat  has  been 
broken  through  in  many  places,  and  has  been  carefully  drawn 
together  by  strong  threads.     The  leathern  back   is   ornamented 


with  gilding  stamped  upon  it,  and  in  the  centre  are  the  arms  of 
Rubens,  above  which  appears  his  name,  thus : — "  Pet.  Paul. 
Rubens  :  "  below  is  the  date  1623. 

Rubens  was  twice  married :  *  his  second  wife  was  a  beautiful 
girl  of  sixteen,  his  niece,  Helena  Forman,  whose  features  are  well 
known  by  their  endless  multiplication  in  his  works ;  for  he  was 
not  only  fond  of  painting  her  portrait,  but  adopting  her  features 
for  the  beauties  of  his  fancy  subjects.  The  painter,  at  the  period 
of  his  second  marriage,  had  reached  the  somewhat  advanced  age 
of  fifty-four,  but  he  had  manners  which  concealed  his  years,  and 
in  the  paintings  where  he  is  represented  with  his  young  wife  we 
are  never  struck  by  the  discrepancy  of  their  ages.  Rubens  had  a 
somewhat  soldatesque  style,  and  his  wife  had  a  comeliness  beyond 
her  years  :  the  picture  at  Blenheim,  in  which  she  is  depicted  in 
all  the  glory  of  her  beauty,  attended  by  a  page,  sufficiently  attests 
this  ;  as  another  picture  in  the  same  collection,  and  which  was 
presented  by  the  city  of  Brussels  to  the  great  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough, tells  of  the  painter's  happy  home.  The  scene  is  the 
garden  of  his  house  at  Antwerp  :  Rubens  is  proudly  and  lovingly 
walking  beside  his  wife,  who  conducts  their  child  in  leading 
strings.  The  painter  wisely  made  his  home  his  world ;  he 
gathered  there,  with  no  niggard  hand,  all  that  could  make  life 
pleasant,  and  few  passed  life  so  happily. 


*  His  first  wife  died  in  the  summer  of  1626.  He  remained  a  widower  until  December, 
1630,  when  he  again  married.  His  political  travels  occupied  much  of  his  time  while  single, 
and  calmed  his  mind  by  a  change  of  scene.  It  was  during  this  time  that  he  visited  France 
Spain,  and  England. 


32  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

There  is  a  good  anecdote  told  of  him,  which  well  illustrates  the 
felicitous  common  sense  of  the  man.  An  English  student  of 
alchemy  made  the  painter  magnificent  promises  of  fortune  by  aid 
of  the  science  if  he  would  furnish  the  necessary  funds  for  his 
laboratory.  Princes  were  found  at  this  time  to  entertain  seriously 
hopes  of  thus  enriching  themselves.  The  painter  merely  replied, 
"  You  are  here  too  late,  by  full  twenty  years  ;  for  since  that  time 
I  have  found  the  art  of  making  gold  by  aid  of  this  palette  and 
pencils." 

In  1640  Rubens  died.  A  letter  from  his  old  friend,  Sir  B. 
Gerbier,  dated  Brussels,  May  21,  1640,  notes,  "  Sir  Peter  Rubens 
is  deadly  sick ;  the  physicians  of  this  toune  being  sent  unto  him 
for  to  try  their  best  skill  on  him."  In  another  letter,  written  to 
King  Charles  I.  on  the  same  day,  he  adds  a  postscript — "  Since  I 
finished  this  letter  news  is  come  of  Sir  Peter  Rubens's  death." 
He  had  died  on  the  20th  of  May,  1640,*  aged  sixty  years,  "of  a 
deflaction  which  fell  on  his  heart,  after  some  days  of  indisposition 
and  gout.  He  is  much  regretted  and  commended :  hath  left  a 
rich  widow  and  rich  children."  He  was  buried  on  May  it,,  in  the 
vault  belonging  to  his  wife's  family,  in  the  Church  of  St.  James,  at 


•  Mr.  Sainsbury,  in  a  note  to  his  book,  adds — "  It  has  always  been  said  th.it  Rubens 
died  on  May  30,  1640  ;  but  the  ten  days'  diflerence  between  the  old  and  the  new  style,  from 
the  year  1582  to  1O99,  must  always  be  taken  into  account  when  fixinfj  the  date  of  an  event 
which  occurs  in  a  Roman  Catholic  country.  The  Gregorian,  or  reformed  calendar,  was  not 
used  in  England  until  .September,  1752.  An  act  was  then  passed,  ordering  the  day  following, 
the  2nd  of  September,  to  be  reckoned  the  14th,  which  allowed  eleven  d.nys  for  the 
discrepancies  of  the  old  and  new  styles  during  the  eighteenth  century." 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS. 


33 


Antwerp.  His  funeral  was  conducted  with  much  pomp,  attended 
by  the  chief  personages  in  Antwerp,  the  officers  of  the  city,  and 
the  members  of  the  Academy  of  Painting.  Sixty  boys  of  the 
Orphan  Asylum  walked  beside  the  bier,  each  carrying  a  lighted 
taper.     The  church  was  hung  throughout  with  black  velvet,  the 


Fig.  12. — Rubens's  Chapel. 

service  being  performed  in  the  sumptuous  manner  usually  adopted 
for  the  nobility.  His  widow  afterwards  endowed  the  chapel  given 
in  our  view,  and  erected  in  it  the  altar  there  represented.  The 
picture  above  the  altar-table  is  from  the  painter's  own  hand.  It 
represents  the  Virgin  with  the  Infant  Saviour  in  her  lap,  sur- 
rounded by  saints,  among  whom  stands  St.  George  in  full  armour, 

F 


34 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


which  is  a  portrait  of  Rubens,  the  female  saints  beside  him  being 
portraits  of  his  wives,  and  St.  Jerome  that  of  his  father.  It  is  a 
family  group  as  well  as  a  sacred  picture.  Above  it  is  a  marble 
statue  of  the  Virgin,  which  is  attributed  to  Du  Quesnoy,  better 


^^^sSiA^ 


Fig.  13. — Ruhens'h  Monument. 

known  as  Fiamingo.  The  small  crucifix  standing  upon  the  altar- 
table  is  said  to  be  that  which  was  used  by  Rubens  himself  in  his 
private  devotions.  The  central  slab  in  front  of  the  altar  covers 
the  grave  of  the  master :  it  has  a  very  long  inscription  from  the 
pen  of  the  learned  Gevartius,  the  intimate  friend  of  the  painter, 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS.  35 

celebrating  his  ability  as  a  painter,  and  his  knowledge  as  a  man 
"  of  all  the  arts  and  elegancies  of  every  age,"  and  that  he 
"  happily  laid  the  foundation  of  the  peace  "  between  England  and 
Spain.  Beneath  are  a  few  lines  to  record  the  restoration  of  this 
monument  in  1755  by  Jacques  de  Parys,  a  canon  of  this  church, 
"  a  descendant  of  Rubens  through  his  mother  and  grandmother — 
descendants  of  Rubens  in  the  male  line  having  become  extinct." 

An  inventory  of  the  pictures  in  his  house  at  his  death  was 
sent  by  Gerbier  to  Charles  I.  The  late  Dawson  Turner  pub- 
lished a  limited  number  of  copies  for  private  distribution,  and 
INIr.  Sainsbury  recently  reprinted  it  in  his  "  Life  of  Rubens  from 
Unpublished  Papers,"  in  1858.  The  number  and  value  of  these 
works  of  art  are  strikingly  illustrative  of  the  character  and 
position  of  the  man :  they  equally  show  his  attachment  to  his 
profession,  and  the  extent  of  his  pecuniary  resources.  They  are 
said  to  have  produced  the  sum  of;^ 2 5,000.  It  was  the  intention  of 
the  family  to  have  sold  them  by  auction,  but  they  were  sold 
separately  by  private  contract,  having  been  valued  by  Snyders, 
Wildens,  and  Moermans.  The  King  of  Spain  secured  the  gems, 
medals,  and  carvings,  as  well  as  some  of  the  best  pictures ;  the 
Emperor  of  Germany,  the  King  of  Poland,  the  Elector  of  Bavaria, 
and  Cardinal  Richelieu,  were  the  next  most  important  purchasers. 
The  collection  was  particularly  rich  in  pictures  by  Titian,  Paul 
Veronese,  and  Tintoretto,  and  a  very  many  copies — "made  in 
Spaine,  Italic,  and  other  places,  as  well  after  Titian  as  other  good 
masters."  There  were  ninety-four  pictures  by  his  own  hand, 
among  them  that  which  his  widow  presented  to  adorn  the  chapel 


36  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

of  the  tomb  of  her  husband — the  famous  Chapcaii  dc  Paillc  ;*  many- 
landscapes,  portraits,  and  other  subjects,  probably  kept  as  studies 
by  the  painter,  or  from  some  interesting  association — for  he  had 
more  demands  for  his  work  than  he  could  satisfy.  His  collection 
of  pictures  by  the  old  masters  comprise  specimens  by  John  Van 
Eyck,  Albert  Diirer,  Lucas  Van  Leyden,  Holbein,  Quintyn  Matsys, 
bio..,  proving  the  catholicity  of  his  tastes.  Of  the  masters  of  his 
own  era,  he  had  works  by  Vandyke,!  Snyders,  Jordaens,  De 
Vos,  Breughel,  &c.  In  short,  it  was  the  gallery  of  a  noble  of 
refined  taste. 

The  solemn  old  city  of  Antwerp  feels  still  honourable  pride  in 
its  great  painter,  of  whom  it  has  been  well  said,  "  there  was  the 
same  breadth  and  magnificence  in  his  character  as  in  the  colour  of 
his  compositions,  and  his  mind  was  as  free  from  littleness  as  his 
works."  In  1840,  at  the  great  fete  in  honour  of  Rubens,  his 
statue,  of  colossal  proportions,  by  Geefs,  was  uncovered.  It  stands 
in    the    centre    of    the    Place    Vcrh\    the    great    public    square 


♦  Describc<I  in  the  cnlalof^uc  as  "  Tlic  picture  of  a  woman  willi  licr  liantls  one  upon 
another."  Rubens  would  never  part  uitli  this  picture,  which  he  liad  painted  from  a 
Mademoiselle  Lundens,  to  whose  family  it  passed  after  the  death  of  his  widow,  and 
remained  with  their  descendants  until  the  year  1822,  when  it  was  purchased  by  M.  Niewt>n- 
huys  for  36,000  florins,  and  brouj^ht  to  Enjjland.  After  being  offered  in  vain  to  George  IV'., 
it  was  bought  by  the  late  Sir  Robert  Peel  for  3,500  guineas. 

t  Among  them  was  the  "  Bctr.ayal  of  Christ,"  which  tlie  painter  had  presented  to 
Rubens  as  a  love-gift  before  he  went  to  Italy.  It  is  still  in  Antwerp.  Rubens  had  found 
young  Vandyke  poor  ;  he  had  made  him  rich  by  purchasing  liis  unsold  pictures,  taking  him 
into  his  own  studio,  and  ultimately  enabling  him  to  start  for  study  in  Italy,  giving  him  a 
horse  for  the  journey.  Rubens  hung  his  parting  gift  in  the  best  position  in  his  house,  and 
took  constant  pleasure  in  pointing  out  its  merits  to  his  visitors. 


RUBENS  AND  HIS  SCHOLARS.  37 

immediately  beside  the  old  cathedral,  whose  picturesque  towers 
form  an  admirable  background  to  the  scene.  England  may  learn 
a  useful  lesson  here,  and  not  practically  deny  her  own  intel- 
lectually great  sons,  by  refusing  them  that  public  recognition 
which  she  so  willingly  accords  to  statesmen  and  warriors. 
While  they  are  often  forgotten  or  uncared  for  by  another  genera- 
tion, 

"  The  artist  never  dies." 

His  works  reflect  greatness  and  glory  on  his  country  for  ever ; 
his  victory  is  one  of  peace  and  goodwill,  appealing  to,  and 
conquering  by,  the  best  feelings  of  our  nature ;  and  when 
presented  to  our  view  in  the  manly  type  of  Rubens,  commands 
honour  and  esteem  from  all. 


[nFI7BIlSIT 


;/fok^ 


RUBENS   AND   VANDYKE :— ART-RAMBLES    IN 
BELGIUM. 


Vandyke's  house. 


RUBENS   AND   VANDYKE :— ART-RAMBLES    IN 

BELGIUM. 


CHAPTER    L 

[PPOSITE  our  own  coasts,  and  separated  from  them  by 
a  short  sea-passage,  the  kingdom  of  Belgium  possesses 
claims  on  the  attention  of  the  lovers  of  art  and  history 
superior  to  any  other  near  neighbour.  The  early  history  of 
England  is  much  mixed  up  with  that  of  the  Low  Countries  ;  and 
to  the  Englishman,  whose  love  of  liberty  is  at  once  honest  and 

G 


42  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


profound,  the  actions  of  the  brave  men  who  so  perseveringly  fought 
against  spiritual  and  regal  tyranny  when  the  hope  of  victory  was 
indeed  a  forlorn  one,  must  ever  be  dear.  In  the  marshes  of 
Holland  and  Belgium  liberty  made  her  last  grand  stand, 
emerging  victorious,  and  giving  to  surrounding  nations  much 
of  her  benign  influence.  The  first  great  blow  at  feudalism  was 
struck  by  the  brave  Flemish  burghers ;  and  the  basis  upon 
which  modem  commerce  rests  had  its  foundations  laid  by  them 
also. 

The  wealthy  burghers  were  not  mere  tradesmen  ;  they  loved 
art  and  literature,  and  patronised  both  in  a  most  catholic  spirit. 
The  taste  permeated  all  ranks  ;  thus  the  trade-guilds,  or  frater- 
nities of  workmen,  instituted  their  "  Chambers  of  Rhetoric," 
and  concocted  dramatic  moralisations,  often  thought  worthy  to 
amuse  kings  and  nobles,  when  joyeuse  efitnes  gave  these  honest 
workers  a  chance  of  testifying  their  loyalty  and  respect. 

Nowhere  can  a  greater  or  more  sudden  change  be  felt  than 
in  the  short  passage  between  London  and  Antwerp.  The  most 
disagreeable  part  of  the  voyage  takes  place  in  the  night,  when 
the  steamboat  becomes  a  floating  hotel.  The  morning  is  passed 
in  the  windings  of  the  Scheldt ;  mid-day  lands  us  at  Antwerp, 
amid  scenes  that  recall  the  memories  of  three  hundred  years. 
The  past  mingles  with  the  present  so  quaintly  and  so  charmingly, 
that  the  student  of  art  and  history  may  be  envied  his  first  visit  to 
Antwerp. 

As  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt  is  entered,  the  town  of  Flushing 
gives  token  of  a  contrast  to  our  own  shores.      The  river  is  like  an 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


43 


arm  of  the  sea,  the  town  a  walled  and  embattled  gathering  of 
quaint  old  houses  in  a  lonely  plain  of  sand,  a  solitary  home  for  an 
amphibious  race  of  hardy  fishermen.  Terneuse,  a  small  village, 
with    a   finely   painted   church,    a   high-pitched  roof    and    spire, 


Fig.  15. — "Warden. 

and  an  abundance  of  weathercocks,  is  the  next  place  passed  ;  then 
comes  Warden  (Fig.  15),  of  which  we  give  the  characteristic 
features  in  our  small  sketch.  Doule  soon  succeeds  it,  a  droll, 
Dutch-looking  little  place,  with  very  few  houses,  and  its  church  (a 


Fig.  16. — Fort  Lillo. 

little  cathedral,  as  all  the  Belgic  churches  appear  to  be),  with  a 
miniature  steeple  and  spire,  transepts,  and  west  porch.  Almost 
immediately  afterwards  we  come  in  sight  of  Fort  Lillo  (Fig.  16), 
which,  with  its  opposite  brother,  protects  this  part  of  the  stream, 


44 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


and  guards  the  approach  to  Antwerp.  Nothing  can  aiford  a  greater 
contrast  than  this  river  and  the  Thames ;  the  one  crowded  with 
vessels,  the  other  dull  and  lonely,  yet  fortified  so  strongly,  while 
our  own  river,  crowded  with  shipping,  and  Hned  with  buildings, 
has  a  comparatively  unprotected  look.  The  Scheldt  is  a  difficult 
river  to  navigate,  but  it  once  received  vessels  from  all  parts  of  the 
world ;  its  windings  are  most  tortuous,  and  it  is  a  very  sudden 
curve  that  brings  Antwerp  (Fig.  17)  in  sight,  its  group  of  spires 


I 


-^    f^. 


■ -s ■JY-t+H--»nt«<t)Mn   - 


;il^5 

-•      t^    > — > 

Fig.  1 7- — First  View  oJ"  Antwerp  from  the  River. 

and    towers   cutting   against   the  sky  in  picturesque   relief,    and 
holding  out  fair  promise  of  a  pleasant  sojourn  to  the  traveller. 

The  Place  Vcrte^  on  the  south  side  of  the  cathedral,  is  the  focus 
of  life  and  gaiety.  The  tree-shadowed  old  square  is  the  favourite 
resort  of  the  idler,  and  will  have  strong  attraction  to  the  stranger, 
for  it  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  localities  in  the  old  city.  The 
entire  length  of  the  cathedral  forms  one  of  its  boundaries  ;  the 
quaint  roof  and  spires  of  this  building  are  nowhere  seen  to  greater 
advantage.  In  the  centre  of  the  place  stands  Geefs's  noble  colossal 
statue  of  Rubens ;  and  the  Englishman  may  feel,  in  looking  upon 


it,  that  he  is  in  a  country  where  men,  mentally  great,  who  devote 
themselves  to  the  elevation  of  the  higher  emotions  of  life,  are 
honoured  and  recognised.  Rubens  is  "  the  bright  particular  star  " 
of  Antwerp ;  its  inhabitants  never  tire  of  honouring  his  memory  ; 
his  residence  is  still  shown,  his  favourite  chair  is  preserved  in  the 
Museum,  every  trifle  in  the  town  connected  with  him  is  held 
sacred.  The  people  are,  however,  equally  attached  to  the  renown 
of  other  names  that  have  made  their  city  famous.  Quintin  Matsys 
and  his  history  is  familiar  to  every  one ;  so  is  that  of  Vandyke. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  while  many  great  statesmen  and 
warriors  are  forgotten,  the  artists  ot  Belgium  are  familiarly  and 
affectionately  remembered  by  their  country. 

The  frightful  devastations  produced  by  civil  and  religious  wars 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  have  robbed  the 
churches  of  the  vast  accumulation  of  early  art-treasures  they 
possessed  up  to  the  time  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain.  The  cruelty  and 
intolerance  of  the  court  of  Spain  is  without  a  parallel  in  European 
history,  and  after  many  years  of  sufferance  was  at  last  met  by  an 
ebullition  that  spared  no  relic  of  its  dominance.  We  must, 
therefore,  not  look  in  the  churches  of  Antwerp  for  antiquities,  such 
mediaeval  relics  as  ecclesiologists  of  the  present  day  delight  to 
descant  upon,  nor  for  pictures  that  were  painted  by  real  "  Pre- 
Raffaellites."  AVe  must  be  content  to  miss  those  that  preceded 
the  seventeenth  century,  particularly  when  we  find  such  glorious 
works  of  that  period  as  reward  the  seeker  in  every  corner  of 
the  old  city.  Nowhere  can  Rubens  be  seen  to  such  advantage  ; 
in  fact,  he  can  fully  be  comprehended  only  in  the   city  of  his 


residence;  works  displaying  all  his  peculiarities  of  style  and 
character  throughout  his  long,  industrious,  and  honourable  life, 
are  here.  The  "  prince  of  artists "  is  still  a  ruler  in  Antwerp, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  -find  another  city  where  an  artist  is 
so  entirely  honoured. 

It  is  not  requisite,  nor  do  we  propose  to  descant  upon  his 
works  here,  or  narrate  their  number  and  titles  ;  that  has  been 
long  since  fully  and  efficiently  done  elsewhere.  In  taking  a  rapid 
survey  of  Belgium  and  its  art-works,  we  may  merely  point  out 
noticeable  pictures,  elucidating  them  by  sketches  from,  or  rather 
dissections  of,  each  picture.  Architecture  must  come  in  for  the 
due  share  of  notice  demanded  by  that  important  art,  particularly 
as  regards  the  quaint  peculiarities  that  catch  the  eye  of  a  stranger. 
All  this,  and  other  features  of  ordinary  life  in  Belgium,  must  be 
embodied  in  our  passing  glance. 

The  war  between  the  Papists  and  the  Reformers  was  fought 
as  desperately  here  as  anywhere,  with  the  alternations  that  "  the 
chances  of  war"  bring.  Now  the  religion  of  Rome  seems  firmly 
fixed,  and  nowhere  are  the  stately  services  of  that  faith  more 
strikingly  conducted  than  in  Belgium.  In  Rome  they  partake  too 
much  of  the  festive,  or  theatric,  in  their  style,  and  are  wanting  in 
the  grandeur  and  dignity  that  give  them  so  impressive  a  character 
here.  The  architecture  and  fittings  of  the  churches  are  more  in 
accordance  with  the  solemn  pomp  of  religion ;  *'  the  glory  of 
regality"  seems  to  invest  the  national  faith;  and  the  gorgeous 
processions  on  great  festivals,  to  wliich  all  knees  bow,  show  the 
deep-seated  reverencQ  of  the  people. 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


47 


The  stranger  will  notice  at  many  street-corners  pleasing  little 
groups  of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  before  whom  lamps  are  occasion- 
ally lighted.      Some  of  these  are  of  considerable  antiquity  ;   many 


FicT.  i8. 


possess  much  native  grace.  We  give  two  specimens  of  these 
canopied  figures  ;  in  one  instance  (Fig.  i8)  the  simplicity  of  nature 
alone  has  been  aimed  at ;  there  is  a  viotivCy  however,  in  the  action 


48 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


of  the  infant  Saviour  unusual  in  works  of  its  class  :  He  starts  forth 
from  the  embrace  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  holding  forth  the  cross  of 
redemption     in   the   left    hand,    while    the    right   welcomes     the 


Fig.  19. — The  Madonna  Tiiumpliant. 


humblest  aspirant  of  the  faith.  More  of  quaint,  mediaeval  feeling 
is  exhibited  in  our  second  specimen  (Fig  19).  Here  the  Virgin  is 
crowned  and  enthroned  as  Queen ;  her  canopy  is  surmounted  by 
a  flag ;  a  circle  of  stars  adds  lustre  to  her  crown ;  she  boars  a 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


49 


sceptre  in  her  right  hand,  and  is  really  "  the  Queen  of  Heaven," 
as  with  the  Roman  faith,  rather  than  the  simple  "  Mother  of 
Jesus,"  as  the  Protestants  consider  her.  The  Saviour  here  is  a 
passive  figure,  playing  a  very  secondary  part,  as  is  too  often  the 
case  in  the  Church  of  Rome.  That  she  is  "  the  woman  "  of  the 
Apocalypse    is    typified    by   the    serpent 

beneath  her  feet ;   her  divine  triumph  is 

shown  by  the  cherubim  about  her. 

It   is   not   always   that   the   Virgin  is 

thus    shown   triumphant.     Her  woes   are 

often   made   the  visible  stimulus  for   the 

devotion  of  the  faithful.    "  Notre  Dame  de 

Sept  Douleurs,"  is  occasionally  seen  with 

seven  poniards  in  her  breast,  typical  of 

her   spiritual  wounds ;    occasionally   with 

one  only,  as  in  the  engraving  (Fig.  20)  of 

a  statuette  in  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew, 

attached    to    one   of    the    pillars    of    the 

nave. 

It    is    impossible   to    deny  the    great 

devotion  of  the  lower  classes  to  all  church 

ceremonials.    The  poor  repose  on  the  faith 

and  in  the  hope  of  a  better  world,  to  compensate  the  misery  to 

them  of  the  present  one  ;  hence  the  high  altars  of  the  churches  are 

never  without    devout    plebeian   worshippers ;  and   their   quaint 

costumes    and   simple  devotion  have  abundant   elements   of  the 

picturesque   (Figs.  2\    and   22).     The  flat   lands  of  Belgium  and 

H 


jrjf,_  20. — "  Notre  Dame  des 
Douleurs." 


so 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


Holland  necessitate  a  peculiar  head-dress  for  its  peasantry.  The 
strong  winds  that  blow  across  these  plains  from  the  North 
Sea,  would  make  any  "  broad-brimmed"  head-covering  perfectly 
unmanageable  ;  so  a  strange  bonnet  has  been  invented,  that  is 
perched  at  an  angle  above  the  crown,  with  the  narrowest  brim 
possible,  acting  as  "  a  sun-shade"  for  the  eyes.     The  girls  manage 


Fig.  21. — Group  at  the  Altar,  Antwerp  Cathedral. 


to  make  up  for  the  mcagreness  of  the  bonnet  by  the  amplitude  of 
the  cap,  and  indulge  in  lappets  of  lace,  as  costly  as  they  can  afford 
(Figs.  2^  and  24).  In  fine  weather  the  bonnet  is  dispensed  with, 
and  then  the  cap  shines  forth  in  all  its  glory.  The  ladies  of  the 
middle  class  wear  dark  veils,  like  the  Spanish  mantilla :  this 
custom  may  be  traced  to  the  days  of  Charles  V.  and  the  Spanish 
rule  in  the  Netherlands. 


RUBExYS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


Typical  figures  of  Faith,  more  or  less  graceful,  abound  in  the 
churches.  In  that  of  S.  Carlo  Borromeo — the  sumptuous  fane  of  the 
Jesuits — is  a  very  elegant  figure,  borne  on 
clouds,  supporting  the  cross,  and  elevating 
the  cup  of  the  Eucharist  (Fig.  25).  The 
Church,  under  less  triumphant  influences,  is 
seen  in  our  second  example  (Fig.  26). 

No  one  can  examine  the  Belgic  churches 
without  being  forcibly  struck  by  the  abund- 
ance and  superiority  of  the  wood-carving  with 
which  they  are  enriched.  With  the  utmost 
elaboration  of  hand-labour  is  combined  a 
high  artistic  feeling,  and  a  painter-like  free- 
dom of  execution  that  gives  these  works  a 
very  high  character.   It  may  be  a  question  whether  there  be  fitness 


Fig.  22. — Priestly  Costume. 


Fig.  23. — Head-dresses  of  Flemish  Peasantrj*. 

in  converting  a  pulpit  into  a  group  of  figures  and  accessories 
embodying  a  scriptural  story;  but  the  objection  does  not  hold 


52 


HOMES,  HAlWrS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


Fig.  24.— A  Pea- 
sant's- Cap. 


with  the  elegant  adjuncts  which  the  gorgeous  ritual  of  Rome 
demands.  In  the  Church  of  St.  Augustine  are  pleasing  groups 
of  cherubim  and  angels  bearing  floral  gifts,  that 
form  the  decorations  of  a  confessional  (Fig.  27). 
Though  not  absolutely  detached  from  the  surface 
over  which  they  seem  fluttering,  they  are  in 
such  bold  relief,  being  so  much  "undercut," 
that  the  finger  may  be  passed  behind  many 
parts  of  them.  The  wood-carvers  of  the  Low 
Countries  have  always  been  celebrated  for  their 
talent,  and  their  descendants  in  Belgium  still 
worthily  uphold  their  fame,  as  the  modern  works  in  Antwerp 
Cathedral  abundantly  prove. 

The  treasures  possessed  by  the  churches  in  the  paintings 
which  still  adorn  their  walls,  and  attract  visitors  from  all  parts 
of  the  globe,  are  enormous.  Those  that  chiefly  attract  atten- 
tion are  the  works  of  Otho  Venius  (the  master  of  Rubens), 
Rubens,  and  Vandyke.  Otho  Venius  is  sometimes  termed  "  the 
Flemish  Raphael."  His  works  show  much  of  the  sweetness 
and  purity  of  the  great  Italian,  and  are  in  this  way  far  superior 
to  those  of  his  renowned  pupil ;  but  they  are  often  cold  and 
formal,  and  evidence  little  appreciation  of  the  graces  of  colour. 
Venius  was  a  most  diligent  painter  and  designer,  imbued  with 
strong  religious  mysticism,  which  shows  most  in  the  series 
of  emblematical  engravings  he  published,  typifying  the  World 
and  the  Spirit.  Religious  emblems  were  a  book-fashion  in 
those  days,  and  talented  men,  clerical  and  lay,  racked  their  brains 


EUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


53 


in  endeavouring  to  make  the  working  of  the  mind  take  a  bodily- 
form.  How  different  from  the  simple  truthfulness  of  Rubens  :  his 
greatest  picture,  "  The  Incredulity  of  St.  Thomas,"  is  chiefly 
remarkable  for  the  unpretentious  power  of  its  reality.    Here  all 


\W//,/ 


Fig.  25.—"  Faith  :  "  Church  of  S.  Carlo  Borromco. 


Fi".  26. 


is  dignity  and  repose.  The  simple  action  of  the  Saviour  is 
excellently  rendered,  the  progress  of  conviction  is  admirably 
traced  in  the  other  figures  (Fig.  28).  You  feel  that  the  incredulity 
of  St.  Thomas  is  not  quite  removed,  although  he  scrutinises  with 


54 


HO^^ES,  HAUNTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


an  earnest,  intent,  and  awe-struck  gaze,  the  wound  in  the  hand 
which  is  extended  towards  him  ;  but  the  features,  and  more 
especially  the  hand,  of  the  younger  disciple  say  as  powerfully  as 
words  could  do,  that  he  recognises  his  risen  Lord.  This  simple 
majesty  and  power  of  expression  give  a  higher  character  to  the 
works  of  Rubens  than  do  their  brilliant  colouring  and  masterly 


Fig.  27. — From  Wooil-c.irving,  Church  of  St.  Augustine. 


manipulation.  The  head  of  St.  Simon,  in  "  The  Presentation  in  the 
Temple,"  is  magnificent  for  its  dignity  and  elevation  (Fig.  29). 
Vandyke's  "Ecstasy  of  St.  Augustine"  is  the  nearest  approach 
to  this  (Fig.  30).  The  aged  saint,  supported  by  youthful  angels 
of  extreme  beauty,  is  the  realisation  of  saintly  humanity.  There 
is   here  much  grace  in  the  forms,  and  brilliancy  in   the  colour 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


of  the  entire  composition,  which  is  certainly  one  of  the  painter's 
best  works.  The  beauty  of  his  angels  and  younger  male  figures 
is  again  well  shown  in  his  picture  of  the  dead  Christ  in  the  lap  of 
his  mother,  now  in  the  Antwerp  Museum.  A  more  beautiful  group 
than  the  two  angels  and  St.  John  cannot  be  studied  for  pathos 


Fig.  28.—"  The  Incredulity  of  St.  Thomas  "-  Rubens. 

and  depth  of  feeling.  Nor  is  the  Virgin,  with  her  arms  extended 
transversely,  a  less  speaking  figure.  She  seems  truly  accabUe  de 
douleur,  raising  her  imploring  eyes  toward  heaven,  as  if  to  seek 
renewed  strength  there.  The  action  of  the  two  angels  is  full  of 
sentiment  and  dignity— the  one  gazing  on  the  wounded  hand,  to 
which  St.  John  directs  his  attention  with  a  gesture  of  affection  and 


•f  THl 

^U1»'I7BRSIT7) 


pitying  sympathy,  while  the  other,  unable  to  endure  the  mournful 

sight,  veils  his  face  in  his  black  drapery  (Fig.  31).     In  the  large 

Crucifixion  by  Vandyke  (which  he  gave  to  the  Convent  of  the 

Jacobins  in  return  for  the  care  they  took  of  his 

father  during  his  last  illness)  there  is  a  striking 

group  at  the  foot  of  the  cross.   The  angel  is  one 

of  his   most   graceful  figures.     The    action  of 

St.  Dominic,  with  his  open  arms  and  tenderly 

Fig.  29-— St.  Simon—     sympathising   face,    and   of    St.    Catherine   of 

Sienna,   with    her    closed    eyes    and    delicate 

expression  of  purity,  combines  the  qualities  of  dignity,  grace,  and 

tenderness,  in  as  high  a  degree  as  they  can  be  found  in  the  works 

of  this  great  master. 


I'ijT.  30.— "The  Ecsta-^y  of  Si.  Augustine  "—Vamlyke. 


It  was  this  power  of  introducing  saintly  legend  into  scriptural 
history  that  gave  the  earlier  artists  so  much  scope  for  variety 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


57 


in  their  compositions,  and  of  which  the  moderns,  for  various 
reasons,  cannot  avail  themselves.  When  pictures  were  ordered  for 
churches,  it  became  a  necessary  duty  for  the  artist  thus  patronised 
to  introduce  the  saint  to  whom  the  church  was  dedicated  ;  no 
feeling  of  anachronisms  committed  was  ever  allowed  to  interfere 
with  this  arrangement  of  the  subject.     This  is  strikingly  shown  in 


Fig-  31.— Pitying  Angels— after  Vandyke. 

the  portion  of  the  picture  here  given  (Fig.  z'^).  The  boldest  of 
modern  painters  would  hardly  dare  to  introduce  at  the  foot  of  the 
cross  saints  who  are  popularly  known  to  have  lived  many  hun- 
dred years  after  that  event,  and  make  them  take  the  place  of 
those  (St.  John  and  the  jMagdalen)  who  are  known  to  have  been 
there.  This  license  gave  variety  to  a  hackneyed  subject,  but  it 
ultimately  led   to  evil  effects.     Artists  were   not   satisfied  with 

I 


58 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


saintly  legend,  but  emulated  classic  mythology,  and  revelled  in 
groups  of  angels  and  genii  more  fitted  for  Roman  baths  (where 
they  originated)  than  Christian  churches.  Some  of  this  false 
feeling  displays  itself  in  the  group  :  the  winged  Cupid — for  he  is 
scarcely  an  angel — seated  at  the  foot  of  the  cross  has  a  reversed 
torch  beside  him,  the  classic  emblem  of  Death  ;  the  lamp  and 


Fig.  32. — From  the  Crucifixion,  by  Vandyke. 

skull  carry  out  the  same  idea.  When  Art  submits  to  the  adoption 
of  such  petty  adjuncts,  it  is  a  sure  sign  of  innate  weakness ;  the 
fascination  of  such  liberty  is  great,  and  soon  resolves  itself  into 
license ;  and  when  weakness  and  license  combine,  we  get  such 
furniture  pictures  as  the  Church  was  obliged  to  be  content  with  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  which  sapped  the  v(>ry  foundation  of 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC.  59 

religious  art.  We  see  the  worst  examples  of  this  want  of  pure 
religious  feeling  in  the  French  school  of  the  period  of  Louis 
Quinze  ;  but  this  bad  pre-eminence  was  partially  shared  by  the 
schools  of  Italy ;  it  even  pervaded  sculpture  under  the  guidance 
of  Bernini,  whose  fluttering  draperies  emulated  pictorial  art, 
deprived  sculpture  of  its  innate  dignity,  and  left  in  place  thereof 
but  a  miserable  exhibition  of  spasmodic  power.  The  greatest  of 
all  Christian  temples  is  disfigured  by  monstrosities  of  this  kind  ; 
we  cannot  wonder,  then,  that  French  sculptors  and  painters 
should  have  been  unable  to  resist  the  fascination  of  following 
in  the  fashion  patronised  at  the  chief  sanctuary  of  their  faith. 


60  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


CHAPTER   II. 

jiNTWERP   still   preserves   many  buildings,  public    and 
private,  that  existed  in  that  stormy  period  of  the  city's 
historj' — the  era  of  Spanish  rule  under  the  cruel  Duke 
of  Alva.     j\Ir.  IMotley,  in  his  history  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  has 
remarked  with   truth,  that   no  "historic   doubter"  can   possibly 
take  his  defence  in  hand,  though  they  have  done  that  of  a  Robes- 
pierre or  a  Alarat.    "  Pluman  invention  is  incapable  of  outstripping 
the  truth  upon  this   subject.     Ilis   own   letters,   and   the   official 
records  of  the  Spanish  court,  are  more  than  enough  to  prove  himself 
and  his  master,  Philip  IL,  monsters  of  cold-hearted  ferocity."  This 
**  most  Christian"  king,  simply  because  his  Protestant  subjects 
objected  to  the  external  paraphernalia  of  his  faith,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  devoted  a  whole  country  to 
torture  and  death.     His  actions  and  those  of  his  general  '*  seem 
almost  like  a  caricature ;  as  a  creation  of  fiction  they  would  seem 
grotesque  ;  "  yet  they  fill  the  pages  of  sober   history,   compiled 
from  official  documents  of  icy  coldness.     Indiscriminate  massacre 
or  slow  torture  destroyed  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Belgic  people. 
When  his   majesty  heard  that   many  had,    spite   of  all  torture, 
declared  their  faith  at  the  stake,  and  rejoiced  on  their  road    to 
death,  he  ordered  that  they  should  be  gagged,  and  ultimately  that 
they  should  be  secretly  destroyed  in  the  dungeons  of  their  prisons. 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


6i 


The  king,  who  was  never  seen  to  smile  or  be  gay,  except  for  a  few 
days,  after  he  received  the  news  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 


♦  Fig.  33. — ^Prison  of  the  Inquisition. 

mew,  provided  fitting  dungeons  for  his  fatal  purpose.      Follow 
your  guide  through  the  tortuous  streets  of  old  Antwerp,  and  the 


62 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


gloomy  prison  may  yet  be  seen  (Fig.  n).  Its  outer  doors  of  solid 
oak,  strengthened  by  iron  plates,  and  secured  by  numerous  bolts 
(Fig.  34),  lead  to  cells  in  which  imagination  sickens.  Three  are 
here  represented  (Figs.  35 — 37).   The  first,  of  the  most  usual  order, 


Fig.  34.^Tlie  I'rison  Duor. 


is  about  seven  feet  high  and  six.  feet  wide,  and  is  furnished 
with  a  post  and  chains,  with  rings  to  secure  the  neck,  hands,  and 
feet  of  the  unfortunate  prisoner.  This  has  a  window  a  few  inches 
wide,  but  many  are  without,  and  in  suffocating  darkness,  like  the 
third,  which  is  fitted  for  the  worst  i:)uriDoses,  the  dark  hole  in  the 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


63 


floor  opening  down  into  a  pit  beneath  the  prisons,  whence  the 
tortured   bodies   disappeared  for  ever.     The  central  cell  of  our 


Figs.  35 — 37. — Dungeons  of  the  Inquisition,  Antwerp. 


triplicate  of  horrors  is  the  cell  of  examination ;  the  post  and 
chains  to  which  the  questioned  were  affixed,  remain  (Fig.  38). 
The  holes  in  the  arched  roof  will  be  noticed, 
through  which  the  voice  of  the  tortured 
ascended  to  an  upper  chamber,  where  the 
secretary  of  "  the  holy  office,"  with  official  sang- 
froid, took  down  what  was  said.  It  is  with  a 
sigh  of  relief  we  again  reach  the  fresh  air  of  the 
open  street,  after  a  visit  to  such  an  unwhole- 
some monument  of  religious  hate  and  cruelty. 
Externally  this  building  is  not  without  the 

,  .         Fig.  38. — In  the  Prison, 

picturesque  chararacter  never  unassociated  with  Antwerp, 

mediaeval  architecture.   Numberless  quaint  houses  and  picturesque 
"bits"  reward  the  pedestrian  in  Antwerp.    "La  vielle  Boucherie" 


64 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


is  in  this  category,  its  quaint  character  obtaining  an  additional 
charm  from  the  irregularity  of  its  position  (Fig.  39).     It  is  one 
of  the  oldest  buildings  in  the  town. 
We   must  turn  from  old  buildings,   however  fascinating,  and 


^      ,  !!    ^  '1  'j-  ~_J\         I.  ■  ,1  jil  I 

tt,.  ^"^  I      ■■    1/ -1  .-,:;:I       I 


\ 


^"'K-  39- — "La  Viellc  Boucherie." 


Study  the  works  of  the  artist  who  has  given  Antwerp  an  immortal 
renown,  and  which  draw  towards  them  the  footsteps  of  art- 
pilgrims  from  all  civilised  countries.  Rubens  possessed  all  a 
Fleming's  love  for  pageantry,  and  was  the  proper  artist  for  princes. 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


65 


The  wealth  of  colour  and  richness  of  imagination  exhibited  in  his 
allegorical  and  historic  designs,  and  some  few  of  his  religious 
pictures, — as  "  The  Adoration  of  the  Magi," — evince  a  tendency  to 
gold  plate  and  jewellery,  satin,  brocade,  and  velvet.  Yet  at  the 
proper  time  he  knew  how  to  be  tender,  even  to  the  tenderness  of 
simple  domesticity  ;  witness  his  "  St.  Anne  teaching  the  Virgin  to 
Read"  (Fig.  40),  a  picture  remarkable  for  beauty:  the  group  of 
angels  hovering  above  them  is  as  bright  and  fresh  as  the  bunch  of 


Fig.  40. — "St.  Anne" — Rubens. 


roses  they  hold  in  their  hands.  This  tenderness  is  still  more 
visible  in  an  episode  in  that  noble  picture,  "  The  Elevation  of  the 
Cross,"  the  first  great  public  work  executed  by  Rubens  after  his 
return  from  Italy  (Fig.  41).  Here,  amid  the  groups  of  terrified 
and  horror-stricken  women,  stand  the  Virgin  and  St.  John,  their 
hands  locked  together  as  if  seeking  comfort  from  mutual  sym- 
pathy. St.  John  fixes  his  mournful  gaze  on  his  dying  Lord ;  the 
Virgin  casts  a  side  glance  of  anguish  in  that  direction — a  look  full 

K 


66 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


of  woe  and  desolation — as  if  she  could  not  bear  to  take  in  the  full 
sight  of  the  agony  which  that  spectacle  presents.  These  two 
figures  in  their  sad-coloured  and  grave  drapery  give  solemn 
power,  artistically,  to  the  whole  group.  In  the  picture  of  "  The 
Dead  Christ  bewailed  by  the  Virgin"  (Fig.  42)  there  is  still  greater 
passion  :  the  head  of  the  Saviour  is  terribly  faithful  as  a  transcript 


Fig.  41.— The  Virgin  and  St.  John— Rubens. 

of  death  by  suifering ;  the  Virgin  averts  her  head  in  painful 
consciousness,  with  the  deep  anguish  of  a  mother ;  the  Magdalen 
weeps  with  clenched  hands,  but  her  sorrow  is  without  the  maternal 
poignancy.  Such  pictures  may  never  be  painted  again  :  they 
belong  to  a  past  race,  like  the  cathedrals  that  enshrine  them,  and 
which  we  can  now  scarcely  imitate.  There  is  a  deep-seated 
reflective  sorrow  in  the  face  of  the  good  centurion  as  he  gazes  on 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


67 


his  dying  Saviour  upon  the  cross  (Fig.  43)  :  he  leans  forward  on 
his  horse,  abstracted  from  all  other  worldly  thought,  with  an 
attentive,  sorrowful  gaze.  The  sorrow  of  the  Magdalen  is  more 
poignant  (Fig.  44) :  her  extended  hands  stretched  imploringly 
towards  the  brutal  soldier  who   is  piercing    the  Saviour's   side, 


Fig.  42. — The  Dead  Christ — Rubens. 


as  if  to  prevent  this  last  outrage,  is  one  of  those  touches  of  nature 
which  go  home  to  the  heart. 

Rubens  is  often,  and  sometimes  justly,  accused  of  coarseness 
in  his  pictures  of  martyrdoms.  In  the  gallery  at  Brussels  is  a 
terrible  example,  in  which  a  saint's  tongue  is  torn  from  the  living 
mouth.  That  he  was  capable  of  refinement  is  proved  by  his  treat- 
ment of  the  "  Martyrdom  of  St.  John,"  now  in  the  cathedral  at 


68 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


Malines  (Fig.  45).  \Vc  copy  the  figure  of  the  saint :  the  face  full 
of  the  expression  of  faith  and  confidence,  looking  upward,  and 
upward  only,  for  he  casts  no  thought  towards  the  boiling  caldron 
in  which  the  executioners  are  placing  him.      Irrespective  of  its 


Fig-  43- — The  Good  Centurion. 


Fig.  44. — St.  Mary  Mngd.nlen. 


touching  "  motive,"  there  is  great  grace  in  the  pose  of  this  figure. 
In  his  "Peste  d'Alost,"  there  is  much  of  the  same  quiet  grace,  as 
may  be  seen  in  the  figure  we  select  therefrom.  The  expression  of 
trustful  hope  and  resignation  in  this  man  as  he  gazes  on  the  saint 
is  very  tender  (Fig.  46). 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


69 


His  great  pupil,  Vandyke,  is  second  only  to  his  master.  In 
the  same  cathedral  is  his  version  of  "  The  Crucifixion,"  from  which 
we  select  the  figures  of  the  two  thieves.  They  are  as  powerfully 
contrasted  as  those  painted  by  Rubens  in  his  more  celebrated 


Fig.  45. — The  MartjTdom  of  St.  John. 

work.  The  one  on  the  right  of  the  cross,  with  distorted  features 
and  distended  chest,  is  hopelessly  dying  in  sin  (P'ig.  47) ;  but  the 
other,  over  whose  cramped  and  tortured  limbs  the  lassitude  of 
approaching  death  seems  already  creeping  (so  beautifully 
betokened   by   the    drooping  hand   which    hangs    helpless    and 


70 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND  WORKS  OF 


relaxed  over  the  cross),  bears  an  expression  of  pleased  resignation 
and  humble  hope  (Fig,  48). 

The  dead  Christ  in  the  arms  of  his  mother,  surrounded  by 
weeping  angels,  is  copied  from  a  sketch  by  Vandyke,  formerly  in 
the  Van  Schamps  collection  at  Ghent.  It  is  remarkable  for 
tenderness,  pathos,  and  grace  (Fig.  49). 

Malines  is  happy  in  the  possession  of  one  of  the  greatest  of 


Fig.  46. 


Rubens's  works,  "  The  Miraculous  Draught  of  Fishes."  It  is  one 
of  the  brightest,  richest,  and  most  brilliant  pictures  that  perhaps 
ever  issued  even  from  his  hand.  It  is  full  of  life  and  expression, 
combined  with  great  grace.  Witness  (Fig.  50)  the  two  disciples 
who  are  lifting  the  net,  the  younger  beckoning  to  his  partners  in 
the  other  vessel,  and  the  elder  intent  on  the  haul  ;  the  pose  of 
both   is   admirably  conceived ;    but    the    idea  of  the  original   is 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


71 


wanted  to  fully  comprehend  its  artistic  power.  The  subordinate 
parts  of  this  noble  picture,  the  brilliant  colours  of  the  various  fish, 
the  waves  with  their  foam  blowing  off  in  the  wind,  the  sandy 
beach  with  its  shells,  and  the  bird  fluttering  over  all,  are  faithful 
to  nature  and  beautiful  as  examples  of  such  art-realisations. 

The  rich  store  of  artistic  wealth  in  these  sacred  edifices  of 


Fig.  47. 


Fig.  48. 


Belgium  is  astonishing  to  many  money-loving  travellers,  for  they 
represent  large  sums,  and  the  fraternities  who  own  them  are  not 
always  among  the  richest :  but  they  have  an  innate  love  of  art, 
and  a  pride  in  the  possession  of  works  that  can  attract  men  of  all 
countries  and  creeds  toward  them.  This  feeling  is  not  yet  fully 
understood  in  England,  nor  the  pride  with  which  a  Belgian 
regards  the  painters  of  his  native  land  ;  it  is  as  if  he  shared  in  the 


72 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


honours  the  world  has  awarded  them,  saying,  "I  too  am  a 
Belgian,"  as  the  enthusiastic  master  of  the  olden  time  exclaimed, 
"  I  too  am  an  artist."  It  bears  the  nearest  resemblance  to  the 
zeal  of  the  old  Italians,  who  honoured  and  loved  artists  more  than 
they  did  warriors,  statesmen,  or  princes. 

There  is  still  much  in  these  cathedrals  and  churches,  despite 


Fig.  40. — From  a  Sketch  by  Vandyke. 


the  fearful  havoc  once  made  in  them,  to  remind  the  spectator  of 
the  days  of  old.  The  Romish  ritual  prides  itself  on  its  unchanging 
nature ;  in  this  country  all  the  appointments  of  the  church 
conform  to  the  mediaeval  standard  ;  and  while  the  Italian  church, 
with   its    light   operatic   music,  its  theatric  decoration,    and    its 


RUBENS  AND   VANDFKE,  ETC. 


73 


undignified  costume,  leaves  very  few  solemn  impressions  on  the 
mind,  the  great  festivals  of  the  Belgian  cathedrals  possess  an 
innate  dignity  and  grandeur  which  cannot  fail  to  affect  even  those 
who  may  not  adhere  to  the  faith  that  has  called  them  into 
existence.  There  is  a  regal  dignity  surrounding  these  great 
celebrations,  nor  is  there  anything  trifling  in  the  conduct  of  them. 


^Ife^^^- 


w     ^\ 


V 


FijT-  50. 


The  late  Mr.  Pugin,  the  architect,  than  whom  no  one  could  be 
more  devoted  to  his  Church,  was  as  honestly  unsparing  of  his  sar- 
casms on  the  weakness  and  want  of  dignity  visible  in  its  modern 
ceremonials  and  costumes  as  he  was  on  modern  architectural 
abortions  at  home  and  abroad.  He  has  shown,  in  his  admirable 
"  Glossary  of  Ecclesiastical  Costume,"  how  the  priestly  guise  has 
degenerated  from  the  grandeur  of  the  Middle  Ages.     In  Belgium 


we  may  still  see  costumes  as  grand  as  the  priestly  dresses  in  the 
pictures  of  Titian,  or  the  noble  figures  of  Loyola,  now  one  of  the 
greatest  pictorial  treasures  of  Warwick  Castle. 

Those  who  are  conversant  with  early  paintings,  or  with 
illuminated  manuscripts  of  the  same  era,  which  are  often  very 
valuable  exponents  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  past  ages,  will 
at  once  detect  the  unchanged  character  of  much  they  will  see  in 


Fig.  51.— A  FuncKil  Bier. 

this  interesting  country.  Wc  give  a  small  instance  merely  as  a 
sample  of  the  whole;  it  is  a  funeral  bier,  covered  with  the  cross- 
embroidered  pall,  and  surrounded  by  tall  wax  tapers  (Fig.  51).  It 
is  a  sketch  of  to-day,  but  in  no  degree  differs  from  one  that  might 
have  been  made  in  the  fourteenth  century,  so  completely  identical 
is  every  feature  of  the  modern  with  the  ancient  style. 

Tlx-  Roman  Catholic  Church  preserved  this  rigid  adherence  to 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC.  75 


good  old  forms  until  the  court  of  Rome  becam^e  in  itself  corrupt 
and  careless.  The  reign  of  the  Borgias  was  as  fatal  to  manners 
as  to  morals.  Even  in  its  most  solemn,  and,  we  may  add,  its  most 
cruel  ceremonies,  the  taste  of  the  theatre  predominated  over  that 
of  the  Church.  Witness  the  memento  of  sanguinary  old  times 
preserved  in  the  Church  of  St.  Saveur  at  Bruges  (Fig.  52).  This 
faded  and  time-stained  relic  is  the  banner  once  triumphantly 
carried  before  the  victims  of  the  Inquisition.  The  figure  of  St. 
Dominic  that  once  surmounted  it  has  decayed  by  age,  and  gives 
place  to  the  crozier,  pastoral-staff,  and  mitre  of  the  archbishop. 
The  central  painting  represents  the  adoration  of  the  Virgin  and 
Child  by  saints  and  angels :  it  is  mounted  on  crimson  satin,  and 
edged  with  gold  fringe ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  look  on  its  faded 
hues,  with  the  remembrance  of  its  original  use,  without  a  shudder, 
and  a  grateful  feeling  that  the  spread  of  intelligence  among  the 
laity,  and  the  establishment  of  the  printing-press,  has,  at  length, 
banished  for  ever  such  unchristian  cruelty  from  any  Church 
purported  to  be  founded  on  the  words  of  Him  who  carne  to 
save  rather  than  condemn,  and  who  has  taught  us  that  "  God  is 
love." 

In  the  holier  thoughts  inspired  by  these  old  buildings,  in  the 
purer  feelings  evinced  in  the  works  of  these  old  artists,  let  us  walk 
through  the  happy  and  prosperous  kingdom  of  Belgium,  with  the 
calm  placidity  of  a  philosophic  mind.  Pictures  are  to  our  walls 
what  parterres  are  to  our  flower-gardens.  To  those  who  look  not 
below  the  surface,  a  flower  may  be  a  pretty  trifle  to  pluck,  to 
smell,  or  look  at,  and  cast  aside  to  die  ;  but  to  a  properly  consti- 


76 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


tuted  mind,  like  that  of  our  great  poet  Wordsworth,  "a  yellow        ' 
primrose  "  is  infinitely  more  than  so  simple  a  thing  as  it  appears 


I'ig.  52. — The  Banner  of  the  Im|uisitii)n. 


to  the   unreflective.     It  was  to   him  "  a  thing  of  beauty  "  in  its 
exquisite   colour  and  form;  a  "joy  for  ever"  to  his  mind  as  a 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


7.7 


proof  of  the  benignity  of  the  Creator.  With  some  such  feeling  let 
us  look  upon  the  mental  works  of  the  great  masters  in  art, 
unchanging  in  a  world  of  change,  or  even  improving  as  teachers, 
as  time  grows  older,  and  the  greed  of  wealth  covers  us  as  with  a 
fog-cloud. 

In  one  of  the  Antwerp  churches  is  a  relic  of  the  great  painter 


Fig.  S3- 


Rubens,  more  "  personal "  in  its  character  than  any  other  the  city 
has  to  show,  if  we  except  the  painting-chair  which  he  constantly 
used  in  his  studio,  now  preserved  in  the  picture  gallery  of  the 
town.  The  Church  of  St.  Jacques  required  for  its  altar  a  new 
railing,  and  the  rich  townsmen  each  gave  something  towards  a 
handsome  one  of  bronze.  The  contribution  appears  to  have 
amounted    to    a    balustrade    each;    that    given    by   Rubens    is 


78  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

inscribed  with  his  name,  and  the  date  of  the  gift ;  his  coat  of 
arms  is  also  placed  in  its  centre,  which  we  have  engraved  beside 
it,  on  a  larger  scale.  Fig.  53,  h.  The  opposite  coat  [c]  is  that  of 
one  of  his  fellow-contributors,  and  will  remind  the  reader  of  the 
"merchants'  marks"  often  seen  in  our  own  churches  and  on 
mediaeval  tombs. 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  E2C,  79 


CHAPTER   III. 

|RUSSELS  is  so  happy  a  combination  of  the  best 
features  of  Paris  and  London,  that  it  has  always 
been  a  favourite  place  of  residence  with  the  English, 
who  at  one  time  formed  a  no  very  inconsiderable  portion  of  its 
population.  Of  course  the  casual  visitor  goes  to  Waterloo, 
though  the  locality  is  now  much  altered  since  the  great  day 
of  battle.  The  continual  visit  of  travellers,  making  a  residence 
a  means  of  profit,  have  so  much  increased  the  population 
here  of  Waterloo  and  Mont  St.  Jean,  that  whereas  there  used 
to  be  a  full  mile  of  distance  between  the  two  places,  the  long 
straggling  village  of  Mont  St.  Jean  is  now  quite  united  to 
Waterloo.  We  give  a  sketch  of  the  latter  place  in  its  original 
condition  (Fig.  54);  the  pyramidal  mound  surmounted  by  the 
Belgic  lion,  commemorating  the  native  soldiery,  is  three  miles  off. 
Belgium  has  not  many  monuments  to  show  connected  with  its 
own  great  civil  wars.  Outside  the  gate  of  Ghent,  on  the  road  to 
Antwerp,  are  the  remains  of  the  tremendous  fortress  erected  by 
the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  to  check  the  over  turbulent  inhabitants 
of  the  old  city  (Fig.  55).  Here  were  imprisoned  the  Counts 
Egmont  and  Horn,  and  here  William  the  great  Prince  of  Orange 
led  the  assault  of  1570,  when  the  citizens  succeeded  in  obtaining 
possession  of  it,  and  soon  afterwards  levelled  it  with  the  ground ; 


8o 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


the  people  working  as  willingly  as  did  the  Parisians  when  they 
razed  the  Bastille  ;  and,  like  them,  being  assisted  by  their  wives 


Fig.  54. — Waterloo. 

and  children.     Within  its  boundary  is  the  octagonal  Chapel  of 
St.  Macaire.     It  is  enclosed  by  the  heavy  ivy-covered  walls  of  the 


^^^^'rW 


tig.  55.— The  OKI  Citadel,  Ghent. 

central  keep  (Fig.  56).     The  cloister  of  the  Gothic  Chapel  of  St. 
Bavon,   which    also    stood  within    the    citadel,    has    much    more 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


picturesque  features.     It  is   in  the  Romanesque  style,  and  was 
once  the  centre  of  the  ancient  quarter  of  St.  Bavon,  whence  eight 


Fig.  56. — Chapel  in  the  Citadel,  Ghent. 

hundred  houses  were  removed  to  make  way  for  this  formidable 
fortress  (Figs.  57  and  58). 


Fig.  57.— Cloister  of  the  Old  Monastery  of  St.  Bavon,  Ghent. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  fine  specimens  of  old 
domestic  architecture  to  be   seen  in  Belgium  ;    they   abound  in 

M 


82 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


infinite  variety.  Malines  possesses  some  picturesque  examples,  of 
which  we  engrave  one  specimen  (Fig.  59).  Louvain  is  equally 
rich,  and  among  them  is  the  remarkable  brick  building,  with 
geometric  tracery  over  the  entire  front,  given  in  Fig.  60.  At  Ghent 
and  at  Bruges  are  equally  good,  though  varied,  specimens  of  the 
ability  of  the  old  Flemish  builders. 

]\Iany  amusing  details  will  attract  an  observant  eye  in  these 
old  cities.     Quaint  signs,  with  their  necessary  names   in  broad 

Flemish,  greet  passers  by.  Of  these  we 
give  four  specimens  (p.  95).  It  will  be 
conceded  that  wo  use  the  term  "  neces- 
sary "  advisedly,  for  the  "  red  hound  " 
(of  a  bright  scarlet  tint)  and  "  the  wild 
cat"  require  their  proper  designations 
to  render  them  recognisable. 

The  Flemings  have  always  de- 
lighted in  the  grotesque,  and  in  start- 
ling popular  pageantry.  Every  city 
had,  and  has  still,  its  appointed  day  of  jubilee,  generally  in  honour 
of  its  patron  saint,  when  the  trade  guild  parade  the  streets  in 
fanciful  dresses,  accompanied  by  the  civic  giants,  enormous  figures 
of  animals,  real  and  imaginary,  whales,  ships  fully  rigged  and 
manned,  with  heathen  gods,  classic  heroes,  and  heterogeneous 
characters  to  marshal  the  whole.  No  great  city  was  without  its 
giant,  and  on  great  occasions  they  all  assembled  to  do  honour  to 
the  advent  of  some  great  personage.  The  only  giant  who  has 
never  travelled  beyond  the  walls  of  his  own  city,  is  Antigon  of 


Fig.  58.— Columns  at  St.  Bavon. 


Antwerp,  and  for  the  most  sufficient  reason  :  there  is  no  gate  of 
the  old  city  tall  enough  for  him  to  pass  under.     This  enormous 


jri<T.  59. — Old  Mansion  at  Malines. 

figure  was  constructed  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 
(Fig.  61.)  Within  the  body  is  a  spiral  staircase,  leading  to  a 
platform  on  a  level  with  the  neck,  where  a  man  stands  to  direct  a 


8+ 


HOMES,  HAUXTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


windlass  to  turn  the  head  from  side  to  side  when  he  is  drawn  on 
his  car  through  the  streets.  He  is  provided  with  a  wife  of  equally 
gigantic  proportion,  and  a  brood  of  young  giants,  about  ten  feet 
high,  who  walk  after  them  (Fig.  62).  Their  bodies  are  of  wicker- 
work,  and  conceal  strong  men,  who  give  what  vitality  they  can  to 
the  monsters.     They  are  the  delight  of  the  populace,  who  speak 


I'ig.  Oo. — Gothic  lluusc  at  Louvain. 

with  warm  affection  of  *' notre  bon  p6re  Antigon,"  "sa  belle 
Dame,"  and  '*  nos  amiablcs  pctits  G6ants ;  "  yet  the  history  of  the 
**  bon  p6re  "  would  seem  to  call  for  no  mark  of  esteem.  According 
to  popular  legend  he  was  a  cruel  giant,  who  inhabited  a  castle  on 
the  Scheldt,  where  Antwerp  now  stands,  and  exacted  heavy  toll 
from  all  boats  that  passed  :    if  the  men  did  not  pay,  he  cut  olT 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


«S 


their  hands.  Braban,  one  of  Julius  Csesar's  generals,  ultimately 
conquered  him,  founded  the  seignory  named  Brabant  after  him, 
and  built  Antwerp,  giving  it  that  name  in  memory  of  the  hands 
cut  off  ijiand  i'worpen)  by  the  giant,  which  hands  still  appear  in  the 
city  arms,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  shield  borne  by  the  giant's  wife. 


Fig.  6 1 


Fig.  62. 


In  spite,  however,  of  so  clear  and  vivacious  a  narrative,  sober 
topographers  are  more  inclined  to  trace  the  name  of  the  city  from 
its  position,  "  an  t'werf "  (on  the  wharf),  that  led  to  its  great 
commercial  prosperity. 

But  we  must  bid  adieu  to  civic  legends,  and  take  a  last  glance 
at  the  treasures  of  pictorial  art  the  old  towns  enshrine.     To  begin 


86 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND  WORKS'  OF 


at  the  beginning,  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  renowTied  of 
paintings  is  still  the  great  feature  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Bavon,  at 
Ghent.  It  is  the  work  of  the  brothers  Hubert  and  John  van  Eyck, 
and  possesses  all  their  beauties  as  well  as  their  faults.  The 
wonderfully  sound  and  brilliant  condition  of 
the  picture  is  a  testimony  to  their  careful  and 
conscientious  work.  The  principal  subject  (for 
it  is  in  many  compartments)  is  '*  The  Adoration 
of  the  Holy  Lamb,"  into  which  design  is  crowded 
more  than  three  hundred  figures,  all  finished  with 
the  most  scrupulous  minuteness ;  that,  however, 
•tig.  63.— VanEyck's    is  a  qualification  less  remarkable  than  the  great 

Virgin. 

degree  of  character  they  possess,  and  the  vigour 
and  correctness  of  their  drawing.  Larger  groups,  or  single  figures, 
surround  this  subject.  One  of  the  most  striking  is  that  of  the 
glorified  Madonna  (Fig.  63).  Her  costume  is  regal,  as  also 
is  that  of  the  Saviour,  who  wears  the  tiara  and  the  golden  robes 

of  a  worldly  sovereign,  clasped  with 
jewels  across  the  breast,  as  shown  in 
our  cut  (Fig.  64). 

In  the  same  cathedral  are  two  pic- 
tures by  an  artist  very  little  known, 
but  of  great  ability — Michael  Coxie. 
There  is  a  series  of  designs  (thirty-three  in  number)  illustrating 
Apuleus's  tale  of  "  Cupid  and  Psyche,"  which  Vasari  says  are  by 
him,  but  which  are  most  usually  assigned  to  Raphael.  Coxie  is 
not  the  only  Fleming  whose  pure  love  of  Italian  art  would  lead 


'f 


Fig.  6  J. 


connoisseurs  to  ascribe  their  works  to  Italian  artists.  Otto  Venius, 
the  master  of  Rubens,  is  often  termed  by  his  countrymen  the 
Flemish  Raphael,  from  the  character  of  his  designs.  The  pictures 
by  Coxie  in  this  church  represent  "  Christ  bearing  His  Cross  "  and 


Fig.  65. — The  ^Magdalen,  by  ^Michael  Coxie. 


"  The   Crucifixion : "   from  the  latter  we   copy  the  figure  of  the 
Magdalen  (Fig.  65). 

Bruges  abounds  in  objects  of  interest,  and  its  old  streets  and 
houses  are  very  picturesque ;  it  is,'however,  so  near  the  sea-coast 
and  the  great  landing-place,  Ostend,  that  most  English  travellers, 
with  characteristic  impatience,  hurry  past  it.  It  will  well  reward 
examination,  as  it  contains  in  its  churches  and  public  buildings 


some  of  the  finest  art-works  in  Belgium.  The  cathedral  ^or  St. 
Saveur,  as  it  is  sometimes  termed)  has  a  fine  picture  by  an  early 
artist,  Hans  Hemling,  worthy  of  Van  Eyck ;  but  the  great  work 
of  this  artist  is  in  the  hospital  of  St.  John,  whither  he  had  resorted 
for  cure,  after  being  severely  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Nancy, 
1477.  The  picture  was  painted  in  grateful  memory  of  the  atten- 
tion he  had  received  at  the  hands  of  the  good  sisters.     Here,  also, 

(f  ^\  ^^ 


^"^ 


Fig.  66. 


is  the  chief  glory  of  his  pencil — the  famous  "  Chasse,"  painted 
with  the  legend  of  St.  Ursula  and  the  virgin  martyrs.  The 
brilliancy  and  beauty  of  this  work,  and  its  marvellous  freshness 
after  four  hundred  years,  astonish  all  who  see  it  for  the  first  time. 
As  a  pure  specimen  of  the  art  of  the  fifteenth  century  it  may  be 
said  to  be  unrivalled  (Fig.  66). 

Wood-sculpture  has  always  been  much  patronised  in  the  Low 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


89 


Countries ;  hence  it  has  assumed  a  higher  character  than  it 
generally  exhibits  elsewhere.  We  engrave  a  group  from  the 
cathedral  (Fig.  67),  and  a  graceful  figure  of  the  Madonna,  from  a 

V 


Jig.  67.— In  the  Caihcdral,  Bruges. 


street  corner  (Fig.  68).  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  interest 
and  beauty  that  sometimes  attaches  to  these  groups  intended  to 
attract  the  pious  feelings  of  pedestrians,  and  have  given  some  few 

N 


90 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


specimens  from  Antwerp ;  but  this  group  is  the  most  elegant  we 
have  met  with. 

Near  the  hospital  stands  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame,  a  perfect 
museum  of  art.  Nowhere  can  be  seen  finer  examples  of  the  wood- 
carving  which  has    made   Belgium   famous.      The  tombs  of  the 


Fig.  68. — The  Madonna  at  Bruges. 


renowned  Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  his  daughter 
Mary,  wife  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  are  marvels  of  design  and 
execution.  A  foundation  of  marble  is  overlaid  with  foliations  and 
figures  in  gilt  metal-work,  and  further  enriched  by  coats-of-arms 
in  brilliant  enamel  colours.     Funeral  pomp  could  bo  carried   no 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


9' 


further  than  this,  nor  is  the  art-workmanship  of  the  Burgundian 
era  better  exhibited  than  upon  these  sumptuous  mementoes. 

The   great    art-feature    of  this   church,   and    undoubtedly  the 
finest  piece  of  sculpture  in  Belgium,  is  the  group  of  the  Virgin  and 


Fig.  69. — Group  attributed  to  Michael  Angelo. 

Child  in  one  of  the  side  chapels.  It  is  popularly  ascribed  to 
Michael  Angelo  (Fig.  69),  but  the  fact  of  its  being  his  work  cannot 
be  proved.  There  is  nothing  unworthy  of  the  greatest  master  in 
its  composition  and  treatment,  and  it  is  certainly  too  good  for  the 
best    Flemish  sculptor,  Du  Quesnoy.      Never  was    the  charm  of 


92  HOMES,  IIAUXTS,  AXD    WORKS  OF 


simplicity  more  visible  than  in  this  work.  The  dignity  of  the 
seated  figure  greatly  adds  to  the  grace  of  the  infant  Saviour,  the 
playful  and  wavy  lines  of  whose  position  contrast  charmingly  with 
the  tranquillity  and  solidity  of  that  given  to  the  Virgin-Mother. 
Seldom  does  a  sculptured  work  assert  its  high  place  in  art 
more  unmistakably  than  this,  the  pride  of  the  people  of  Bruges. 

In  thus  rapidly  reviewing  the  art-labours  of  a  country  that  has 
earned  for  itself  so  important  a  position  as  Belgium,  it  will  be 
conceded  that  the  difficulties  are  great,  to  make  all  compre- 
hensible in  a  few  pages,  and  by  the  simplest  anatomy  of  the 
subjects  treated  of,  embracing,  as  they  do,  architecture,  sculpture, 
and  painting.  Our  task  has  been  lightened  by  the  very  truthful 
sketches — the  work  of  a  lady  artist-j-which  have  helped  to  make 
our  descriptions  clearer,  and  very  often  drawn  our  own  attention 
to  peculiar  and  valuable  incidents  in  a  picture.  Like  the  naive 
remark  that  gives  piquancy  to  a  narrative,  a  slight  incident  in  a 
picture  may  give  it  a  greater  value  by  an  appeal  at  once  to  those 
strong  innate  feelings  implanted  in  all,  and  through  which  **  one 
touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin."  The  painter,  equally 
with  the  poet,  has  this  power ;  occasionally  the  painter  has  the 
advantage  in  a  more  direct  and  positive  form  of  communicating  his 
ideas.  It  is  the  nature,  even  more  than  the  art,  of  the  painters  of 
the  Low  Countries,  that  gives  them  their  position  as  an  original 
naturalistic  school,  in  opposition  to  the  pure  idealists  of  the 
Italian  school.  They  have  kept  their  position,  and  are  likely  to 
keep  it  as  long  as  truthfulness  be  valued.  They  cannot  take  the 
high  rank   that  by  right  belongs   to  the  greater  artists   of  the 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC.  93 

southern  schools;  but  they  do  not  pretend  to  dispute  that  fact,  and 
are  content  to  rest  on  their  own  merits.  Sometimes  we  admire 
only  their  wonderful  imitative  power,  or  perfect  mastery  of  the 
technicalities  of  art :  but  we  are  often  called  on  to  note  high 
■  flights  of  thought  and  genuine  touches  of  feeling.  Where,  indeed, 
should  we  look  for  them,  if  not  in  the  men  who  fought  the  great 
fight  of  liberty  and  religious  freedom  in  the  marshes  of  Holland 
and  the  plains  of  Belgium  ?  taught  in  the  severest  school  of 
cruelty  and  wrong,  persecuted  for  opinion  past  human  endurance, 
and  quite  past  modern  belief.  Keen  and  deep  must  have  been  the 
feeling  and  thought  of  the  Belgians  of  past  times — the  noble  men 
to  whom  the  old  world  owes  a  depth  of  gratitude  for  crushing  the 
tyranny  of  Spain,  at  a  time  when  that  power  was  vigorously 
endeavouring  to  stamp  out  with  a  bloody  heel  the  last  hope  of 
Protestantism. 

As  a  mercantile  nation  we  are  also  indebted  to  our  Belgian 
brethren  ;  they  were  the  first  to  organise  trade  regulations  and 
establish  commerce  on  a  proper  basis.  No  one  but  the  student  of 
mediaeval  history  can  form  an  idea  of  the  absurd  restrictions  and 
the  dangers  that  then  surrounded  commerce.  Protective  laws  of 
the  narrowest  scope  crippled  home  trade ;  dangers  by  land  and 
water  almost  destroyed  export  trade.  Cities  exacted  taxes,  so  did 
nobles,  over  whose  territories  merchants  passed.  If  they  trusted 
their  property  down  rivers  like  the  Danube  or  the  Rhine,  they 
were  liable  to  the  most  monstrous  exaction,  or  sometimes  utter 
confiscation,  from  the  robber-knights  who  lived  in  the  castles  on 
their  banks,  and  stopped  all  passers  by  for  the  black-mail  that 


94  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

formed    their     principal,    and     sometimes     their     only    income. 
Honest   traders  were  sometimes   incarcerated  in  dungeons   until 
death  set  them  free,  or  were  tortured  for  money  and  robbed  of  their 
merchandise.     At  last  the  great  towns  leagued  together,  promising 
to  aid  and  defend  each  other  with  money  and  soldiers  of  their  own 
raising,  thus  establishing   a  confederation  that  soon  taught  the 
world  the  wisdom  of  commercial  laws.     The  Hanse  Towns  became 
most  important  cities  ;  the  Hanseatic  League  was  found  to  be  of 
as   much,  or  more  value,  than  royal    concessions    and  chartered 
promises,  often  made  to  be  broken.      The  local  government  of 
these  towns  was  another  striking  feature,  and   the  magnificent 
hoiels  de  mile  erected  in  all  of  them  testify  to  the  regal  spirit 
exhibited  by  the  merchants  of  the  Middle  Ages.     Indeed,  their 
pride  was  sometimes  carried  far :  as  when  a  deputation  waited  on 
Charles  V.,  and  used  their  valuable  velvet  coats,  trimmed  with 
costly  furs  and  gold,  to  sit  upon,  as  the  benches  were  of  wood ; 
the  audience  over,  they  rose  to  depart,  and  had  reached  the  door, 
when  an  attendant  came  running  to  remind  them  of  their  coats 
left  on  the  seats  behind.     "  We  are  not  accustomed  to  carry  our 
cushions  away  with  us,"  proudly  remarked  the  last  of  the  throng 
as  he  passed  out  of  the  palace.      This  pride  was   doomed   to  a 
severe  lesson  when  Alva  and  his  myrmidons  came  among  them  ; 
it  was  subdued,  but  never  extinguished  :  subdued  in  consequence 
of  deep  trial,  and  purer  thought,  the  result  thereof;  but  living  still, 
as  we  hope  it  ever  will,  in  the  hearts  of  the  brave  and  free  nations 
of  Belgium  and  Holland. 

Our  own  relations  with  both  countries  were  at  one  time  most 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC. 


95 


intimate  :  '*  old  John  of  Gaunt,  time-honoured  Lancaster,"  was 
born  in  the  old  citadel  of  Ghent,  which  stands  in  the  centre  of  that 
city.  By  marriage  and  inheritance  our  nobility  had  interests  in 
the  country ;    by  commerce  we   had  much  more,   and  our  great 


1 

AN    IiK    WILDlv    KAT. 

Fig.  70. — "  The  Red  Hound." 


Fig.  71.— "The  Wild  Cat." 


merchantmen  were  as  familiar  with  the  Antwerp  Bourse  as  with 
the  Royal  Exchange.  As  in  London  in  the  olden  time  signs 
hung  from  every  shop,  many  such  signs  are  still  found  in  Belgium, 
examples  of  which  are  given  in   Figs.   70 — 73.      In  the  days  of 


l/tl        ^ 

AN    l)E    nONTlC    KOKV. 


^:'-^""""-^ 


AN    DEN   CAKI'KR. 


Fig.  72. — "  The  Good  Cow." 


Fig.  73-— "The  Carp." 


Sir  Thomas  Gresham  our  merchants  had  their  warehouses 
abroad  as  well  as  at  home ;  and  the  houses  of  the  old  traders  are 
still  shown  at  Brussels,  Antwerp,  and  other  great  mercantile 
towns.     But  as  Venice  fell  by  an  alteration  in  the  route  of  traffic 


r. 


uiriTBRsiTrJ 


96  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

from  the  East,  Antwerp  and  Belgium  generally  suffered  from  the 
same  cause,  accelerated  there,  however,  by  internal  warfare. 
The  greater  equalisation  of  commerce  in  the  present  day  has 
changed  the  exclusiveness  that  would  have  become  objectionable 
or  dangerous  to  the  various  nations ;  and  trade  is  in  general 
hands  instead  of  a  few,  resting  on  its  own  power  rather  than  on 
restrictive  or  protective  laws. 

In  taking  our  leave  of  this  interesting  country,  we  cannot  but 
recur  with  much  pleasure  to  the  wanderings  we  have  indulged  in 
among  the  old  cities,  though  we  may  have  felt  higher  elevation  in 
their  picture  galleries.  Every  city  has  its  history,  every  old  house 
seems  to  tell  a  tale.  The  wanderer  in  Ghent  or  Bruges  may 
often  meet  with  an  antique  street,  which  seems  not  to  belong  to 
the  present  time,  as  if  its  inhabitants  must  be  only  such  persons  as 
we  see  in  the  marvellous  mediaeval  scenes  depicted  by  their  native 
painter.  Leys,  of  Antwerp.  The  picture  galleries,  glorious  with 
the  works  of  the  greatest  men,  possess  a  rich  store,  awaiting 
visitors  who  will  studiously  search  among  them.  Art-rambles  can 
be  indulged  in  here  second  to  few  in  interest,  and  historic  places 
of  matchless  renown  visited  ;  the  days  pass  quickly  and  pleasantly 
during  a  holiday  taken  in  Belgium  ;  how  easily  that  holiday  may 
be  secured  by  a  short  transit  over  the  narrow  seas  that  separate 
her  shores  from  our  own,  we  have  shown.  History,  even  our 
own,  connects  itself  with  every  town,  art  with  every  church  or 
public  building:  "dull  must  he  be  of  soul"  that  can  ramble  in 
-these  old  cities  without  deeply  feeling  the  mental  advantage  he 
thereby  enjoys.     It  is  indeed  a  privilege  to  walk  where  the  great 


RUBENS  AND   VANDYKE,  ETC.  97 

men  of  history,  the  great  men  in  art,  have  walked  before  us  ;  to 
realise  past  history  by  present  things ;  to  re-people  the  old 
streets  in  imagination,  with  their  old  inhabitants,  when  the  noble 
Rubens  and  the  courtly  Vandyke  gave  to  the  old  city  of  Antwerp 
a  dignity  and  a  glory,  which  its  modern  inhabitants,  to  their  great 
honour,  are  still  proud  to  acknowledge. 


THE   MILL  AND   THE   STUDIO   OF   REMBRANDT. 


|N  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  between  the  villages  of  Layor- 
dorp  and  Koukergen,  there  stood,  at  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  a  large,  old  fashioned  mill,  on  ground 
slightly  elevated,  and  commanding  a  less  monotonous  view  than 
Holland  exhibits  in  general.  It  must  not  be  understood,  however, 
that  the  Rhine  here  exhibits  any  of  those  features  of  romance 
which  give  its  banks  so  much  attraction  higher  up  the  stream ;  its 
flat,  unvaried  course  partakes  of  the  melancholy  of  extinction  as 
it  divides  its  water,  and,  losing  itself  in  the  marshy  wastes  of 
Holland,  flows  into  the  sea.  Herman  Gerritz  van  Rhyn  was  the 
owner  of  the  mill,  and  on  the  15th  of  December,  1606,  the 
somewhat  gloomy  home  he  inhabited  was  rendered  more  joyous 
by  the  birth  of  a  son,  who  was  destined  to  make  the  unknown 
name  of  his  father  immortal.  The  young  Rembrandt  van  Rhyn 
appears  to  have  been  left  to  grow  up  in  boyhood  with  a  perfect 
freedom  from  all  restraints,  even  of  an  educational  kind.  It  is 
reported  that  he  was  schooled  a  little  at  Leyden,  but  it  is  evident 
that  his  attainments  could  never  reflect  any  honour  upon  that 
seat  of  learning.  Application  of  such  a  kind  was  never  to 
Rembrandt's  taste,  and  historic  research,  even  when  necessary  for 


I02 


HOMES,  HAi'XTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


the  vraisemblance  of  his  designs,  he  openly  and  avowedly 
despised.  How  soon  his  taste  for  art  developed  itself  we  do  not 
now  know,  but  it  is  very  likely  to  have  been  exceedingly  early, 
and  the  gloomy  shade  or  vivid  sunshine  which  alternated  in  his 


I'ig.  74.— Rembrandt's  Mill, 

father's  mill  may  have  impressed  his  youthful  imagination  most 
strongly  at  a  time  when  the  mind  is  most  open  to  powerful 
impressions.  Ilis  early  days  must  have  passed  somewhat  mono- 
tonously in  his  home,  which  by  his  own  representation  had  few 


REMBRANDT  VAN  RHYN.  103 

attractive  features.*  The  mill  itself  (Fig,  74)  seems  to  be  situated 
over  the  favourite  ditch  of  a  Hollander,  which  stagnates  close  by 
the  house,  a  square  gloomy  building,  with  heavy  dormer  windows, 
the  roof  partly  overgrown  with  the  rank  herbage  and  parasitical 
plants  of  a  damp  climate.  It  seems  the  very  realisation  of  Tenny- 
son's "  moated  grange  ;  "  like  that, 

"  The  broken  sheds  look  sad  and  strange, 
Weeded  and  worn  the  ancient  thatch." 

You  can  detect  the  marshy  moss  which  "thickly  crusted  all," 
while  the  "  sluice  with  blackened  waters  "  is  near,  and  the  distant 
prospect  is  but 

"  The  level  waste,  the  rounding  grey." 

A  boy  born  here,  to  have  become  an  artist,  must  have  been 
gifted  with  a  genius  for  art,  and  his  visible  powers  for  practising 
it  must  have  been  strong  to  have  induced  his  parents,  who  appear 
to  have  cared  little  for  his  mental  cultivation,  to  obtain  instruction 
for  their  son  of  its  professors.  They  were  not  wealthy,  and, 
consequently,  could  not  obtain  the  best  assistance  :  four  mediocre 
professors  of  painting  are  named  by  Smith  in  his  memoir  of 
Rembrandt  as  his  instructors.!  But  the  very  brief  period  he 
remained  with  each,  and  the  small  assistance  they  could  have 
been  to  him,  except  as  instructors  in  its  simplest  rudiments,  is 


*  The  etching  of  his  father's  house  and  mill,  which  is  here  copied,  is  dated  1641,  and 
was  consequently  done  by  the  painter  when  he  was  thirty-five  years  of  age. 

t  Prefixed  to  his  complete  and  excellent  "  Catalogue  Raisonn^  "  of  his  works. 


104  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

evident  from  an  acquaintance  with  their  works  and  his  own.  He 
soon  left  them  all,  and  practised  what  he  knew  in  his  paternal 
home  ;  with  his  taste  for  chiar' -oscuro  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  strong  opposition  of  light  and  shade  constantly  before  him  in 
the  gloomy  mill,  where  his  father  pursued  his  avocations,  gave 
him  the  first  hint  of  the  hitherto  undeveloped  power  he  possessed, 
and  which  he  "  subsequently  carried  to  such  high  perfection  in  his 
works,  that  he  may  be  said  to  have  created  a  new  era  in  paint- 
ing." *  Through  life  he  seems  to  have  always  worked  as  if  he  had 
the  effect  of  a  small  amount  of  concentrated  light  before  him,  and 
as  if  every  object  he  portrayed  was  more  or  less  subjected  to  that 
medium  only.  Burnet,  in  his  "  Lectures  on  Painting,"  has 
admirably  dissected  this  principle,  as  original  as  it  is  inap- 
proachable :  "  in  real  truth,"  says  Kugler,t  "  he  struggled  to  give 
vent  to  a  rude  defiance  of  all  conventional  excellence,  and  in  the 
fulfilment  of  this  task  he  has,  indeed,  produced  extraordinary 
effects.  He  gives  no  sharply-defined  forms,  but  merely  indicates 
them  with  a  bold  and  vigorous  brush  :  the  principal  points  alone 
arc  made  bright  and  prominent  by  striking  lights  ;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  the  lights  reflected  from  them  penetrate  in  a  won- 
derful manner  the  surrounding  darkness,  to  which  they  thus  give 
life  and  warmth. 

He  appears  to  have  reached  the  age  of  manhood  ere  he  left  his 
father's  roof,  and  to  have  had  the  mill.  a,nd  its  neighbourhood  for 


•    Smilli's  Mciiiuii  dI  l\.cnil)iaii(lt. 
t   ••  Handbook  of  I'.iintin;;,"  Part  ii. 


IITERSIl 

REMBRANDT  VAN  RIIYN.  ,>  ©jr-ioSvi 

-i^^^i 

his  studio,  and  the  boors  who  lived  near  for  his  companions.  He 
never  lost  his  early  tastes ;  and  seems  to  have  loved,  in  more 
prosperous  days,  to  revert  to  the  lower  companionships  of  his 
youth.  When  rallied  on  this  taste  in  after-life,  he  honestly  owned 
the  little  relief  he  found  in  high  society,  or  the  envied  entree  he 
could  command  to  the  house  of  the  elite  of  Amsterdam,  saying, 
"  If  I  wish  to  relax  from  study,  it  is  not  honour,  but  liberty  and 
ease  that  I  prefer." 

How  admirably  has  a  great  living  artist*  vindicated  and 
displayed  the  true  position  he  occupied.  "  Men  of  great  and 
original  genius,  who,  like  Rembrandt,  have  little  of  what  is 
ordinarily  called  education,  and  who  seem  wayward  in  their  tastes 
and  habits,  are  sometimes  looked  upon  as  inspired  idiots.  But  in 
the  mind  of  such  a  man,  the  immense  amount  of  knowledge 
accumulated  by  great  and  silent  observation,  knowledge  of  a  kind 
not  to  be  communicated  by  words,  is  something  wholly  incon- 
ceivable to  the  learned  merely  in  books  ;  and  if  their  reading 
has  opened  to  them  a  world  from  which  he  is  shut  out,  he  also 
lives  in  a  world  of  his  own,  equally  interesting,  the  wisdom 
and  enjoyment  of  which  his  pencil  is  constantly  employed  in 
communicating  to  all  who  have  eyes  for  the  sublime  aspects 
of  nature,  and  hearts  fitted  to  receive  such  impressions  through 
their  eyes." 

That  Rembrandt  was  thus  diligently  and  usefully  studying,  is 
evident  from   the  rapidity  of  hand  and  power  of  expression  he 


Leslie,  in  his  "  Handliook  for  Younfj  rainlcr=." 


io6  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

possessed  in  after-life.  His  vigour  was  untiring,  and  his  industry 
unbounded.  We  possess,  in  Smith's  "  Catalogue  Raisonne,"  a 
detailed  account  of  614  pictures  by  him,  and  he  assures  us  that  "a 
list  of  drawings  of  perhaps  triple  the  number  might  be  made  from 
the  public  and  private  collections  in  England,  France,  and  Hol- 
land; "  then  add  to  these  his  etchings,  consisting  of  365  pieces, 
exclusive  of  the  numerous  examples  of  variations  in  the  same 
plates,  and  we  have  an  astonishing  picture  of  his  powers  and 
industry. 

His  extraordinary  facility  of  hand  is  evident  in  all  his  works  ; 
there  is  an  amusing  record  of  its  power  in  one  particular 
instance,  which  deserves  notice.  The  painter  had  gone  to  pass  a 
day's  holiday  with  his  friend  Jan  Six,  the  Burgomaster  of 
Amsterdam,  at  his  country  house.*  The  time  for  dinner  had 
arrived  ;  it  was  served  ;  but  when  they  had  sat  down  to  table,  the 
thoughtless  servant  had  forgotten  to  obtain  any  mustard  ;  he 
was  despatched  in  a  hurry  to  the  village  close  by  to  obtain  it, 
but  Rembrandt,  fully  aware  that  to  hurry  is  no  characteristic 
of  a  Dutch  servant,  at  once  wagered  with  his  friend  that  he 
would  etch  the  view  from  the  window  of  the  dining  room  before 
he  returned.  The  painter  had  always  some  plates  ready  prepared 
for  occasional  use  at  his  friend's  house,  so  he  took  up  one,  and 


•  The  chff-tVauvrf  \n  our  Xational  Gallery,  the  cabinet  picture,  "  Tlie  Woman  taken 
in  Adultery,"  was  painted  for  the  Burgomaster  Six,  and  preserved  with  scrupulous  care  by 
tho  family  until  the  great  revolution  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  when  it  was  sold  to  a 
French  dealer,  who  again  sold  it  to  Angcrstcin  for^^s.ooo. 


REMBRANDT  VAN  RHYN. 


107 


rapidly  sketched  upon  it  the  simple  view  before  him,  completing 
it  before  the  domestic  returned.  Our  engraving  is  a  faithful  copy 
of  this  etching,*  about  one-third  of  the  size  of  the  original  ;  it 
is  dated  1645,  and  represents  the  most  simple  elements  of  an 
ordinary  Dutch  view, — a  bridge,  a  canal,  a  low,  level  horizon,  a 
village  among  trees,  with  a  boat  half  hidden  in  the  canal  beyond. 
The  mark  may  yet  be  seen  in  the  original  impressions  of  this 


^ 


Fi^'.  75.— Six's  Bridge. 


rare  plate,  where  Rembrandt  tried  his  etching  point  before  com- 
mencing his  work,  which  is  executed  with  the  greatest  freedom 
of  hand,  so  that  a  few  lines  only  expressed  the  tree  and  boats, 


*  This  very  rare  etching  sold  in  the  Verstolk  sale  at  Amsterdam,  in  1844,  for/"!;  15J., 
and  would  now  fetch  considerably  more,  as  the  value  of  Rembrandt's  etchings  has  increased 
yearly. 


io8  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 

and  a  few  decisive  shadows  give  solidity  and  effect  to  the  scene. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  etching  to  dissipate  any  faith  in  the  tale 
of  its  origin,  and  it  is  popularly  known  as  "  Six's  Bridge,"  or 
'*  The  Mustard-pot." 

At  this  time  the  artist  was  located  in  Amsterdam  :  his  first 
recognition  as  a  painter  was  at  the  Hague,  in  1627,  where  he  had 
journeyed  to  sell  a  picture  to  an  amateur,  who  astonished  him 
with  a  payment  of  100  florins  (^8  6s.  Sd.)  for  it.  Houbraken, 
who  relates  the  story,  tells  of  the  joy  of  the  young  artist,  who 
travelled  from  his  father's  house  on  foot  to  his  patron,  a  distance 
of  about  ten  miles,  but  was  too  eager  to  acquaint  his  parents 
with  his  good  fortune  to  return  by  the  same  mode ;  he  therefore 
mounted  the  diligence,  and  when  it  arrived  at  Leyden,  jumped 
from  the  carriage  and  ran  home  as  quickly  as  his  legs  could  carry 
him.  In  the  year  following  he  took  up  his  abode  in  Amsterdam, 
and  (with  the  exception  of  a  voyage  to  Venice,  which  it  is  con- 
jectured by  some  of  his  biographers  he  may  have  taken  about 
1635  *)  never  left  the  important  capital  of  Holland. 

Amsterdam  has  been  aptly  styled  a  "Dutch  Venice;"  it  is 
permeated  with  canals,  and  founded  in  the  water.  It  is,  perhaps, 
the  most  artificial   site  in  the  world  for  a  city ;    being,   in   fact, 


*  The  conjecture  is  founded  solely  on  the  fact  of  three  etchings  of  oriental  heads  l>Lir- 
ing  the  inscnption  "  Rembrandt  Venitiis."  But  this,  as  Smith  observes,  "  may  have  been 
a  mere  caprice  of  the  master,"  or  a  jest  in  connection  witli  his  sulijccls  or  their  trealnicnt,  or 
else  a  satire  on  the  taste  which  would  piefer  the  more  ambitious  .school  of  Italian  Art  to  his 
own ;  a  feeling  fully  in  accordance  witii  Rembrandt's  expressjd  opinion  on  oilier  occasions. 
There  is  no  ether  indication  llian  this  of  foreign  travel  in  his  life  or  works. 


REMBRANDT  VAN  RUIN. 


109 


nothing  but  bog  and  loose  sand,  and  every  inch  of  foundation  for 
human  habitation  or  use,  has  to  be  made  by  driving  wooden  piles 
through  this  into  the  firmer  sand  below;  each  pile  is  formed  of  a 
large  tree,  40  or  50  feet  in  length,  and  it  is  recorded  that  upwards 
of  13,000  were  used  for  the  foundations  of  the  town-house  alone. 
This  may  give  an  idea  of  the  expense  of  building  in  the  city,  and 


Fig.  76. — Distant  View  of  AmsterJam. 

the  enormous  quantity  of  timber  upon  which  it  is  constructed, 
which  led  Erasmus  to  jocularly  say  of  its  inhabitants,  that  they, 
like  crows,  lived  on  the  tops  of  trees.  The  distant  view  of  the 
town  from  the  Y*  side  is  very  curious  (Fig.  76),  with  its  tall  houses 
mixed  with  shipping,  some  mansions  bending  portentously 
forwards,  others  sinking  sideways  or  backwards,  and  all  showing 


*  The  Y  or  Ai  is  an  arm  of  the  Zuyder  Zee,  which  forms  the  port,  and  this  syllable,  or 
letter,  resembles  in  sound  the  word  used  in  II  )lland  for  water:  hdl-V,  the  term  by  which  it 
is  usually  known,  means  nothing  more  than  "  liie  water." 


the  insecure  nature  of  their  foundations.*  But  the  most  curious 
feature  in  the  view  is  the  number  of  windmills  mounted  on  the 
fortifications  on  the  land  side  of  the  town.  There  are  thirty- 
bastions  now  useless,  and  upon  each  of  these  works  windmills 
are  erected,  the  odd  effect  of  their  sails  rapidly  whirling  in 
the  breeze,  is  a  peculiarity  as  unique  as  the  city  itself.f  These 
fortifications  now  make  an  agreeable  promenade  for  the  inhabi- 
tants, the  city  being  built  in  the  shape  of  a  crescent  from  the 
water's  edge.  It  is  nearly  seven  miles  in  circumference,  and 
consists  of  95  islands,  formed  by  stacks  of  houses,  to  which  access 
is  gained  by  290  bridges.  On  the  quays  are  many  noble  houses, 
the  erections  of  the  rich  and  powerful  merchantmen  who,  in  the 
palmy  days  of  the  city,  flourished  here.  The  best  bear  dates  of 
the  days  of  Rembrandt,  and  testify  to  the  wealth  and  taste  of  their 
inhabitants.  There  are  a  solid  dignity  and  a  well-understood 
comfort  about  these  old  houses,  very  characteristic  of  that  strong 
domestic  attachment  which  the  Dutch  so  passionately  feel.  In 
their  love  for  the  substantial  they  even  exceed  the  English,  and 
the   ponderous  character   of   the  carved  staircases  and  panelled 


♦  In  1S22,  the  enormous  corn- warehouses  used  by  tlie  East  India  Company,  lo.-idcd 
wiih  70,000  cwt.  of  corn,  sank  down  into  the  muddy  foundation,  fiom  the  subsidence  of  the 
wooden  substiucturc.     The  old  exchange  has  also  sunk,  and  been  demolished. 

t  Our  view  is  sketched  from  the  borders  of  the  jjrcat  ship  canal,  opposite  the  city,  and 
shows  the  old  church,  the  quay,  and  bastions.  The  boat  drawn  by  a  iioi^e  is  the  trfcksifiuvt, 
or  travcllin},'  boat,  used  by  i)assin^'irs  on  canals,  consi^tin},'  of  a  low  covered  saloon  built  in 
a  broad  baige,  with  an  open  railed  platform  above,  to  which  passeiiijers  may  ascend  in  (inc 
weather. 


REMBRANDT  VAN  RHYN. 


rooms  would  more  than  satisfy  the  objections  of  the  veriest  *'  John 
Bull  "to  flimsiness  of  construction.  Everything  seems  made  as 
much  for  posterity  as  for  personal  use ;  and  in  walking  over  the 
town,  you  see  that  two  centuries  have  passed  over  its  buildings 
though  located  in  the  dampest  position,  with  scarcely  a  "  defea- 
ture "  from  time,  and  that  they  may  well  last  two  more.  There 
seems  no  desire  for  change  in  a  Hollander ;  that  which  is 
substantial  and  useful  is  enough  for  his  requirements,  and  no  idea 
of  modern  improvement  seems  to  be  sufficient  inducement  for 
the  trouble  of  alteration.  In  walking  through  the  best  street  of 
Amsterdam  (the  Kalverstrasse)  you  see  nothing  but  the  quiet  red 
brick  houses,  with  their  "  crow-step  "  gables,  that  we  have  been 
familiar  with  from  childhood  in  the  pictures  by  native  artists  ;  or 
the  heavy  wooden  shop-fronts,  with  their  ponderous  frames,  and 
small  squares  of  glass,  much  like  the  old  London  shops  in  the 
prints  of  the  time  of  William  and  Mary.  There  are  a  few  showy 
shops  here,  light  and  airy,  a  la  Paris ;  but  they  seem  to  be  looked 
upon  rather  as  superfluous,  than  a  want,  by  the  inhabitants. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  most  picturesque  buildings  in  the  city, 
of  a  public  nature,  is  the  Weighing-House,  situated  near  the 
Museum,  and  the  house  where  Rembrandt  lived.  It  was 
originally  a  gate,  before  the  town  had  increased  to  its  present 
unwieldly  proportions,  and  was  known  as  the  Gate  of  St.  Anthony 
(Fig.  77).  It  is  said  to  have  been  erected  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  to  have  played  its  part  in  the  wars  between 
the  inhabitants  and  their  vindictive  Spanish  rulers.  It  is  a 
quaint  solid  old  building,  and  some  few  years  since  was  used  as  a 


112 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


medical  school,  after  its  desertion  by  the  merchantmen.  In  the 
open  space  in  front  the  scaffold  used  to  be  erected  for  criminals, 
and  others  for  spectators  around  it ;  the  burghers  at  one  time 
firmly  believing  such  spectacles  had  their  uses  in  deterring  evil- 
doing;    hence   their   families    and    dependants  were    compelled 


I^'K-  77- — ^^'  Anlliunj's  Gate,  Ainslcidain. 

to  attend  these  horrible  "  salutary  warnings,"  as  a  great  moral 
lesson. 

Rembrandt's  industry  was  untiring,  as  we  have  shown,  and 
appears  to  have  been  so  far  rewarded  with  success,  that  he  took  a 
large  house  in  the  lUttmgracht,  and  littcd  it  u]i  for  tin'  reception  of 


REMBRANDT  VAN  RHYN.  113 

pupils.  He  had  married  the  daughter  of  a  farmer  named  Uylen- 
burg,  living  at  the  village  of  Ransdorp,*  in  the  swampy  district 
opposite  the  city,  appropriately  called  Waterland.f  His  pupils, 
according  to  Sandrart,  brought  him  an  income  of  2,500  florins  per 
year,  as  he  received  100  florins  from  each  for  that  period.  His 
paintings,  drawings,  and  etchings  must  have  also  realised 
considerable  sums.  From  1640  to  1650  appears  to  be  the  culmi- 
nating point  of  his  genius  and  his  fortune. 

Rembrandt's  misfortunes  commenced  with  the  purchase  of  the 
house  delineated  in  our  engraving  %  (Fig.  78).  It  was  situated  in 
what  was  then  known  as  St.  Anthony's  Bree  Street,  and  which  is 
now  called  the  Jews'  quarter.  It  was  a  large  handsome  mansion 
with  garden  attached,  and  was  freehold.  The  artist  appears  not 
to  have  been  enabled  to  purchase  it  without  borrowing  the  sum 
of  4,180  guilders,  which  was  advanced  on  mortgage;  and  being 
soon  after  unable  to  meet  his  engagements,  his  entire  effects  were 
seized  and  sold  by  order  of  the  magistrates,  in  July,  1656.  The 
homeless  painter  was  obliged  to  lodge  where  he  could,  and  make 
a  charge  for  his  necessary  maintenance  to  the  bankruptcy  court. 


*  The  scenery  of  this  village,  and  the  old  tower  in  its  centre,  were  etched  by  the 
painter  in  1650. 

t  By  this  marriage  he  had  a  son,  Titus  van  Rhyn,  who,  educated  for  Art,  never  suc- 
ceeded beyond  copying  his  father's  works,  and  died  in  obscurity.— 5wzVA. 

X  It  is  copied  from  a  print  published  in  Smith's  "  Catalogue  Raisonn^,"  from  a  sketch 
by  Mr.  Albertus  Brondgeest,  made  before  the  house  was  destroyed  in  1831  ;  the  same 
gentleman  caused  a  black  marble  tablet,  on  which  the  name  of  Rembrandt  is  inscribed,  to 
be  inserted  at  his  expense  in  front  of  the  new  one  erected  on  the  site.  It  is  situated  at  the 
back  of  the  museum,  the  gardens  and  outbuildings  of  both  joining. 


.7ERSIT71 


■^    «"■ 


114 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


lie  was  but  fifty  years  of  age  when  this  happened,  but  he  did  not 
long  outlive  his  altered  position,  for  he  is  believed  to  have  died  in 


Fig.  78. — Rembrandt's  llouic. 

1664,  as  his  son  Titus  received  the  balance  trom  the  same  court  of 
6,952  guilders  (upwards  ot  ;^6oo  English)  in  the  following  year, 
whi(h  was  paid  over  to  him  as  a  balance  of  accounts    after   all 


REMBRANDT  VAN  RHYN.  115 

claims,  including  heavy  law  expenses,  had  been  paid  out  of  his 
father's  property. 

From  this  it  appears  that  Rembrandt,  like  many  other  unfortu- 
nate persons,  was  a  victim  to  law  and  lawyers  ;  and  added  another 
to  the  long  list  of  men  of  genius  who  are  fed  on  by  the  cunning 
harpies  around  them,  but  who  are  still  ever  ready  to  sneer  at  the 
want  of  business  habits  displayed  by  their  prey — a  sneer  too 
frequently  repeated  by  the  wealthier  ignorant,  always  glad  to  drag 


Fig.  79. — Autograph  of  Rembrandt. 

genius  down  to  their  own  low  level.  The  parsimony  attributed  to 
Rembrandt  is  not  unusual  with  his  countrymen  in  general ;  and 
the  stories  of  his  dining  off  a  herring,  or  a  slice  of  bread  and 
cheese,  need  excite  no  wonder  in  a  land  where  all  practise  thrift. 
The  fac-simile  of  his  autograph  which  we  engrave  is  from  a  letter 
to  the  great  Huygens,  written  on  a  piece  of  paper  which  had  been 
previously  used  to  fold  round  a  copper-plate  ;  but  with  the  artist's 
little   love  of  trouble,  we  may  account  for   that    by  other  than 


ii6 


HOMES,  HAL  NTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


parsimonious  reasons.*  The  tales  so  readily  told  of  the  painter's 
parsimony,  and  his  unworthy  tricks  in  accumulating  money,  are 
almost  disproved  by  the  melancholy  close  of  his  life.  Still,  at  one 
period  he  must  have  earned  much.  Smith,  his  best  biographer,  is 
inclined    to   infer   that   his   difficulties    resulted    from    indiscreet 


Fig.  80. 


conduct  in  the  management  of  his  affairs.  Another  easy  mode  of 
accounting  for  much  loss  of  cash,  is  in  the  suggestion  also  thrown 
out  in  the  same  work,  that  the  painter's  intimacy  with  Manasseh 
lien  Israel  and  Ephraim  Bonus  may  have  tempted  him  to  part 
with  his  moriey  for  alchemical  pursuits,  as   both  those  persons 


*  Autopraphs  of  Rembrandt  are  very  rare  ;  four  letters  in  Sloepkcn's  collection  sold  m 
London  for  ^33  ii«. ;  the  above  was  in  the  Donnadieii  sale. 


were  addicted  to  cabalistic  studies,  and  the  former  wrote  a  book 
on  the  subject,  for  which  the  artist  etched  four  plates  remarkable 
for  mysticism.  The  etching  of  Faustus  in  his  study,  gazing 
on  the  mystic  pcntapla  which  irradiates  his  gloomy  chamber, 
gives  us  the  best  realisation  extant  of  the  cabalistic  belief  of  the 
occult  philosophers,  and  proves  how  far  the  artist  had  studied  and 
was  familiar  with  the  dreamy  science  (Fig.  80). 

Rembrandt's  scholars  were  many ;  but  his  power  of  chiar' -oscuro 
did  not  descend  to  any  of  them.  Among  them  were  Gerard  Dow, 
Nicholas  Maes,  and  Ferdinand  Bol,  all  excellent  in  their  way,  but 
characterised  by  few  peculiarities  like  those  seen  in  the  works  of 
their  early  preceptor.  Rembrandt  cared  little  for  historic  pro- 
prieties. 

The  originality  and  peculiarity  of  Rembrandt's  genius  has 
left  him  undisputed  master  of  his  own  walk  in  art.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  improve  his  faults  without  injuring  his  productions. 
By  the  magic  of  his  hand  he  has  at  times  elevated  low  and  dis- 
gusting forms  into  covetable  marvels  of  light  and  shade  :  the 
grand  management  of  pictorial  effect  is  always  present,  while  at 
times  the  conception  of  each  picture  in  its  totality  is  unrivalled  in 
art. 


THE  COUNTRY  OF  CUYP. 


Fig.  8i.— View  of  Doit. 


THE    COUNTRY   OF   CUYP. 


jF  the  accepted  characterisation  of  a  nation's  felicity, 
conveyed  in  the  well-known  aphorism,  "  Happy  is  the 
country  whose  history  is  a  blank,"  may  be  equally 
applied  to  individuals,  then  may  we  safely  conclude  that  the  old 
Dutch  painters  were  among  the  happiest  of  the  sons  of  Adam. 
Their  lives  were  generally  so  entirely  void  of  what  play\vrights 
term  "  incident,"  that  we  know  little  more  of  them  than  is 
conveyed  in  the  three  facts — that  they  were  born  in  Holland; 
painted  in  the  land  of  their  birth ;  and  were  buried  very  little 
distant  from  the  spot  on  which  they  were  born.     Contented  with 

R 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


the  calm  monotony  of  their  native  land,  they  studied  its 
narrowed  sphere  with  so  intense  an  application,  and  delineated 
it  with  so  much  truthfulness,  that  they  imparted  a  charm  to 
incidents  and  scenes  the  most  unpromising,  and  arrested  the 
attention  of  connoisseurs  absorbed  in  the  grander  flights  of 
Italian  art,  compelling,  by  the  innate  merits  of  their  work,  a 
place  of  honour  to  be  assigned  the  Dutch  school,  as  a  creation,  sui 
generisy  among  the  honoured  of  "  the  world  of  art." 

It  is  with  national  painters  as  it  is  with  national  poets,  they 
suffer  by  translation.  It  is  not  possible  fully  to  appreciate  Dutch 
art  without  visiting  the  Low  Countries.  It  is  not  possible  fully 
to  feel  the  beauties  of  a  national  poet,  unless  we  put  ourselves  in 
the  position  of  his  countrymen,  and  learn  to  understand  the  similes 
he  brings  from  familiar  objects,  and  appreciate  their  force  upon 
the  native  mind.  The  Ranz  des  Vaches  may  be  played  in  our 
streets  without  any  other  notice  than  its  quaint  or  pleasing 
melody  elicits ;  but  its  tones  had  so  many  home-associations  for 
the  Swiss  soldiers  of  the  armies  of  Napoleon,  that  after  hearing  it 
they  deserted  in  such  numbers  as  to  oblige  their  imperial  master 
to  prohibit  it  in  his  camp.  The  golden  sunsets  of  Cuyp,  and  the 
rich  green  meadows  of  Paul  Potter,  can  be  fully  appreciated  by 
any  admirer  of  nature  ;  but  the  quainter  peculiarities  of  Dutch 
art — its  low,  swampy  landscapes,  sometimes  varied  by  ridges  of 
sand,  always  abounding  in  water  and  sky,  with  a  low  horizon, 
having  at  times  an  unnatural  look ;  its  cottage  roofs  scarcely 
peeping  above  the  raised  causeways  so  laboriously  constructed  for 
necessary  transit  ;  its  stunted  willows  and  avenues  of  limes  ;  its 


ALBERT  CUYP  OF  DORT. 


&:mS^ 


luxuriant  herbage  ;  its  thousands  of  windmills  ;  its  well-fed  cattle, 
and  equally  well-fed  peasantry, — are  all  so  many  truths,  the  more 
forcibly  brought  to  the  mind  in  travelling  over  the  land  whose 
painters  have  fixed  them  on  canvas  for  ever,  and  made  them 
familiar  to  the  whole  world. 

One  instance  of  this  is  as  good  for  the  purposes  of  illustration 
as  a  hundred  would  be.  In  the  skies  of  Wouvermans  particularly, 
we  constantly  see  the  bright  blue  partially  obscured  by  a  group  of 
clouds  of  a  perfectly  smoky  tint — a  deep  rich  brown,  totally  unlike 
cloud  tints  among  ourselves,  and  bearing  a  disagreeable  similarity 
to  our  native  horror,  a  "  London  fog  " — now,  this  is  as  true  a  tran- 
script of  a  Dutch  sky,  as  Ostade's  boors  are  faithful  portraits  of 
his  countrymen  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  be  some  hours  in  Holland 
without  seeing  the  perfect  honesty  of  many  other  points  in  their 
delineations,  which  might  be  considered  tasteless  or  unnatural  by 
the  critic  who  judges  at  his  own  home.  It,  therefore,  follows  that 
peculiarly  national  art  can  never  be  fully  appreciated  out  of  its 
country,  or  by  persons  who  are  not  familiar  with  its  features  ;  and 
it  also  argues  the  extraordinary  abilities  of  the  native  artists  ol 
the  Dutch  school,  who  could,  out  of  such  unattractive  and 
unpromising  materials,  create  a  position  now  universally 
accorded  them,  antagonistic  as  it  is  to  the  classic  and  spiritual 
schools,  which  alone  were  considered  to  be  worthy  of  attention  in 
the  days  when  it  first  came  fresh  upon  the  world.  It  was  truth 
again  a  victor ! 

Leslie,   in   his   sound   and    sensible   "Handbook    for  Young 
Painters,"  has  excellently  explained   this.     He  says— "  Italy  is 


12+  HOMES,   HAUNTS,  AXD    WORKS  OF 

sometimes  called  *  the  land  of  poetry;'  but  Nature  impresses  the 
varied  sentiments  of  her  varying  moods  as  eloquently  on  flat 
meadows  and  straight  canals,  as  on  mountains,  valleys,  and 
winding  streams  ;  and  visits  the  mill  and  the  cottage  with  the 
same  splendid  phenomena  of  light  and  shadow  as  she  does  the 
palace.  This  was  well  understood  by  Cuyp  and  Ruysdael,  and 
their  most  impressive  pictures  are  often  made  out  of  the  fewest 
and  the  simplest  materials.  There  is  a  small  sunset  by  Cuyp  in 
the  Dulwich  collection.  It  has  not  a  tree,  except  in  the  extreme 
distance,  nor  scarcely  a  bush  ;  but  it  has  one  of  the  finest  skies 
ever  painted,  and  this  is  enough,  for  its  glow  pervades  the  whole, 
giving  the  greatest  value  to  the  exquisitely-arranged  colour  of  a 
near  group  of  cattle,  bathing  the  still  water  and  distance  in  a 
flood  of  mellow  light,  and  turning  into  golden  ornaments  a  very 
few  scattered  weeds  and  brambles  that  rise  here  and  there  from 
the  broadly-shadowed  foreground  into  the  sunshine." 

Albert  Cuyp  was  born  at  Dordrecht  (or  Dort,  as  it  is  usually 
abbreviated),  in  the  year  1606.  It  was  the  year  that  also  gave 
another  of  its  greatest  artists  to  Holland — the  profound  master  of 
light  and  shade,  the  "  gloomy  Rembrandt."  The  father  of  Cuyp 
was  a  landscape  painter,  but  Jacob  Gerritz  Cuyp  never  raised  his 
works  above  a  quiet  delineation  of  nature,  the  simple  repose  which 
might  satisfy  his  countrymen,  but  would  never  lay  claim  to  atten- 
tion out  of  Holland  ;  it  was  reserved  for  his  son  to  give  poetry  to 
this  prose,  and  by  patient  stages  to  work  upward  to  greatness, 
and  slowly  to  fame; — so  slowly,  indeed,  that  death  arrested  the 
painter's  hand  ere  he  knew  the  value  the  world  would  put  upon 


ALBERT  CUVP  OF  DORT.  125 

his  labours.  In  his  own  time  his  works  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
have  been  appreciated,  and  we  have  no  record  of  even  fair  prices 
being  given  for  them ;  indeed,  it  is  asserted  by  one  of  our  best 
authorities,*  that  down  to  the  year  1750  there  is  no  example  of 
any  picture  of  Cuyp's  selling  for  more  than  thirty  florins,  which  is 
about  five  shillings  less  than  three  pounds  in  English  money. 
How  would  the  worthy  painter  be  astonished  if  he  now  saw  his 
works  fetching  from  ^500  to  ;,^iooo  each,  and  sometimes  more! 
It  is  the  great  gift  of  genius  alone  to  arrest  the  oblivion  which 
generally  follows  in  the  footsteps  of  time,  and,  reversing  the  order 
of  decay,  rise  triumphant  over  its  common  laws. 

Cuyp  was  born  in  stirring  times,  when  his  countrymen  were 
actively  engaged  in  resisting  the  oppression  of  Spain.  They  had 
not  been  permitted  to  enjoy  peacefully  the  unenviable  swamps  of 
Holland  or  the  simple  faith  of  their  fathers,  without  a  struggle 
unequalled  in  the  annals  of  history.  The  bloody  Alva,  that  fierce 
and  inhuman  protector  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  had 
murdered  its  men  in  cold  blood,  at  Leyden  and  elsewhere,  after 
guaranteed  submission  to  his  arms,  and  their  surviving  country- 
men had  seen  that  Spanish  oaths  were  as  fragile  as  reeds ;  so, 
after  losing  the  best  men  of  their  race,  and  laying  their  country 
beneath  water,  enduring  horrors  and  miseries  which  might  have 
been  thought  impossible  among  civilised  men,  they  established 
at  Dort  a  synod  which  opposed  further  attempts  successfully,  and 
ultimately  gave  independence  to  the  Dutch. 

*  Smilh,  "  Catalogue  Raisonne." 


126  HOMES,  JI AUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


Dort  at  this  time  became  the  important  centre  of  political 
negotiation,  and  here  the  Stadtholder  had  his  residence,  and  met 
those  men  from  whose  councils  were  framed  the  general  inde- 
pendence of  the  country.*  Here  resided  Barneveldt,  one  of  the 
purest  patriots  in  an  impure  age  ;  and  here  was  he  arrested  and 
carried  to  the  Hague  to  die  on  a  scaffold,  sacrificed  by  the  very 
people  he  had  served  so  well,  and  who  were  blindly  misled  by  their 
treacherous  Stadtholder,  Prince  Maurice.  At  this  time  Cuyp  was 
thirteen  years  of  age,  and  must  have  been  in  the  way  of  seeing 
and  hearing  much  of  an  exciting  kind ;  indeed,  excitement  of  the 
strongest  was  at  that  time  abundant  in  Holland.  Home  miseries 
were,  however,  succeeded  by  great  successes  abroad,  and  the  trade 
and  wealth  of  the  country  gradually  grew  in  spite  of  savage 
internal  dissensions,  until  the  peace  of  Munster,  in  1648,  gave 
over-taxed  Holland  free  leave  to  recover  itself;  but  they  had 
again  the  misfortune  of  a  bad  governor  in  William  II.,  who 
embroiled  the  country  in  party  war;  his  death  in  1650  once  more 
seemed  to  promise  peace,  but  growing  dissensions  arose  between 
England  and  Holland,  and  Blake  and  Van  Tromp  fought  for 
each  country  at  sea.  The  death  of  Van  Tromp  in  1652,  and 
the  gloomy  prospects  of  their  trade,  induced  the  Dutch  to  again 


•  The  island  on  which  Dort  is  situated  may  be  called  Holland //v/t-r,  inasmuch  as 
historians  inform  us  it  was  one  of  the  first  settlements  made  by  its  earliest  ruler  on  this 
district,  once  submerged  by  the  sea,  and  to  which  the  name  Holt  land,  or  woodeii  land,  was 
ajjplied.  It  thus  casually  formed  a  bit  of  unclaimed  land,  which  gave  Count  Thierry,  who 
had  seized  it,  a  right  of  independent  sovereignty  in  the  eleventh  century,  which  he  vigor- 
ously upheld,  and  assisted  surrounding  districts  in  doing  the  same.  The  water  about  it  is 
still  called  Hollands  Diep. 


ALBERT  CUYP  OF  DORT.  127 

apply  for  peace  to  Cromwell,  which  was  obtained  from  him  on 
terms  so  inglorious  that  universal  discontent  and  rebellion  spread 
throughout  the  republic,  and  increased  into  a  flame  during  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  our  Charles  II.  The  Dutch  were  aided 
by  Louis  XIV.,  only  to  meet  with  his  strenuous  opposition  on  the 
death  of  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  at  a  time  when  the  people  might 
have  fully  expected  repose,  and  a  formidable  aggression  on  the 
part  of  the  French  army  forced  them  once  more  to  internecine 
war ;  the  sluices  were  again  opened,  the  country  submerged  to 
destroy  the  invaders,  and  extensive  tracts  of  land,  which  had 
taken  years  of  persevering  labour  to  protect  against  the  sea, 
were  reduced  to  barrenness  and  desolation.  The  murder  of  the 
De  Witts,  in  1672,  gave  the  whole  power  into  the  hands  of  the 
young  Prince  of  Orange  (afterwards  our  King  William  III.),  who, 
by  his  admirable  judgment,  unflinching  courage,  and  pure 
patriotism,  raised  his  devoted  country  from  the  dust.* 

Cuyp  lived  quietly  through  all  this.  The  year  of  his  death  has 
not  been  recorded,  but  it  was  certainly  after  1672,  as  his  name 
appears  in  a  list  of  the  burghers  of  Dort  made  during  that  year  ; 
and  one  writer,  Immerzeel,  of  Amsterdam,  states  that  he  was 
living  in  1680.  Wars  of  policy  and  religion  appear  not  to  have 
affected  his  calm  course.     Ilis  Holland  was  not  the  Holland  of 


*  It  is  recorded  of  him,  that  when  the  proposal  was  made  to  him  of  constructing 
Holland  into  a  kingdom,  of  which  he  was  to  be  sovereign,  provided  he  gave  up  to  England 
and  France  what  they  required,  and  his  consent  urged  because  nothing  could  save  Holland 
from  ruin,  he  heroically  refused,  declaring  "There  is  one  means  which  will  save  me  from  the 
sight  of  my  countrj-'s  ruin— I  will  die  in  the  last  ditch." 


,28  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD    WORKS  OF 


feud  and   dissension,   but  the  calm  home  of  the  peasant  living 
happily  among  flocks  and  herds  in  genial  sunshine. 

"  His  soul  was  like  a  star,  and  dwelt  apart." 

His  world  was  nature,  without  the  baser  elements  introduced 
therein  by  man  ;  repose  was  his  treasure  ;  and  his  own  quiet 
temperament  is  reflected  in  his  portraits,  glows  upon  his  canvas 
with  a  warmer  radiance,  and  elevates  the  scenes  he  depicts  with  a 
poetry  that  scarcely  belongs  to  the  country  itself.  It  may  be 
asked.  Where,  amid  all  this  flatness  and  apparent  monotony  of 
scene,  did  Ruysdael  study  his  romantic  waterfalls,  or  Cuyp  his 
hilly  landscapes  ?  The  former  must  have  dealt  at  times  in  the 
imaginative,  but  Cuyp  might  readily  have  strolled  from  his  native 
Dort  into  the  province  of  Guelderlandt,  and  been  among  scenes  as 
far  removed  from  general  flatness  as  he  ever  depicted.  With  his 
dreamy  love  of  nature,  he  must  have  gladly  escaped  from  the  poli- 
tical and  religious  dissensions  which  agitated  that  city  in  his  time, 
returning  to  it  only  as  to  a  workshop  wherein  he  might  elaborate, 
his  sketches  made  in  the  peaceful  fields,  and  dispose  of  them  at  a 
moderate  rate  among  his  less  happy  fellow- townsmen.  His 
patrons  are  not  generally  known,  with  the  exception  of  Prince 
Maurice  of  Nassau,  who  was  attached  to  his  pictures.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  the  painter's  life  was  inexpensive  and  unambitious  ; 
his  pictures  would  appeal  directly  to  his  fullow-citizons  and  Ihoir 
ncigh1:K)urs  ;  and  his  niodrrato  wants  and  wish<>s  l)o  amply  satis- 
fied Ijy  the  small  amount  of  patronage  Ihey  could  oHVt,  yet  enough 


ALBERT  CUFF  OF  DORT. 


129 


for  his  small  wants  and  pleasant  dreamings  as   a  free  man  in 
his  native  fields. 

The  visitor  to  Dort  will  now  see  a  very  different  city  to  that 
Cuyp  inhabited  ;  it  has  undergone  changes,  but  many  of  the  old 
buildings  remain.  As  he  approaches  it  by  the  steamboat  from 
the  Moerdyke,  he  will  be  struck  by  the  peculiar  aspect  of  the 
grand  canal  (Fig.  ^2).     It  is  walled  by  dykes,   constructed  most 


Fig.  82. — The  Grand  CanaJ,  near  Dort. 


laboriously  of  earth  or  clay,  and  interwoven  with  a  wicker-work 
of  willow-boughs,  which  has  to  be  continually  renewed  as  it  rots 
away.  This  accounts  for  the  great  cultivation  of  willows  in 
Holland.  The  long  lines  of  trees  which  edge  the  road  on  the 
summit  of  the  dykes  have  also  their  uses,  irrespective  of  the 
pleasant  shade  their  bowering  foliage  affords,  for  their  roots  assist 
in  holding  the  earth  together.  So  careful  of  these  dykes  are  the 
inhabitants,  that  in  some  places  they  will  not  allow  a  plant  to  be 


130  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

plucked  by  the  roots  from  their  sides,  for  there  is  record  of  a  great 
inundation,  accompanied  with  much  damage,  having  ensued  by- 
such  an  act,  which  gave  waterway  to  a  banked  canal,  the  small 
leakage  thus  occasioned  having  rapidly  increased,  and  ended  in  a 
torrent  which  was  fatal  to  the  level  land  near  it.  The  wind- 
mills that  surround  Dort  play  an  important  part  in  ridding  the 
land  of  superfluous  water,  which  is  raised  from  the  low  country 
by  their  means  to  the  higher  embanked  canals,  and  thence  carried 
out  to  sea  when  the  tide  will  allow  the  opening  of  the  great  flood- 
gates. The  amazing  number  of  windmills  in  Holland  may  be 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  they  are  destined  to  do  at  least  three 
times  the  work  they  do  in  other  lands.  They  not  only  grind  grain 
of  all  kinds,  as  with  us,  but  they  are  extensively  employed  in 
sawing  wood,  and,  as  we  have  already  stated,  still  more 
extensively  in  drainage.  Consequently,  wherever  there  chances 
to  be  a  rising  ground,  there  a  windmill  is  stationed,  and  their 
numbers  are  sufficient  to  have  quenched  the  ardour  of  the 
knight  of  La  Mancha  himself,  who  must  have  considered 
Holland  entirely  peopled  with  giants,  with  whom  his  single  arm 
could  only  hopelessly  contend. 

The  traveller  who,  like  Oliver  Goldsmith's,  would  wish  to  see 

"Embosom'il  in  the  deep,  where  Holland  lies," 

would  find  his  quickest  course  by  rail  from  Aiitwt  rj).  As  soon  as 
he  leaves  that  quaint  historic  city,  he  finds  the  flat  land  assume  a 
different  aspect  to  the  flat  lands  of  Belgium  ;  it  is  damper  and 
more  arid,  patches  of  sand  and  rushes   occasionally  appear,  and 


ALBERT  CUYP  OF  DORT. 


i3» 


the  inroads  of  the  sea  in  the  old  times  are  visible.  By  the  time  he 
reaches  the  frontier  town  of  Roosendaal  (Fig.  83)  he  will  fairly 
feel  that  he  is  in  another  land.  Here,  while  the  most  minute  in- 
spection of  the  luggage  of  the  entire  train  is  made  by  the  govern- 
ment officials,  he  may  study  the  view  before  him,  which  we  have 
faithfully   recorded    in  our    engraving,  and  which  is   as    charac- 


Fig.  83. — The  Village  of  Roosendaal. 


teristic  ot  the  country  generally  as  anything  he  will  meet  on  his 
journey.  The  low  sand-ridges  in  the  foreground,  with  a  few 
stunted  bushes  on  them ;  the  higher  sand-hills  crowned  by  a 
windmill;  the  housetops  appearing  from  the  lowland  beyond, 
looking  as  Hood  happily  described  them,  "  as  if  set  like  onions  to 
shoot  up  next  season  ;  "  the  masts  of  the  vessels  mixed  among  all, 


132  HOMES,  HAL  NTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

indicating  the  presence  of  a  canal  in  the  marsh,  too  low  to 
be  detected,  are  all  strikingly  peculiar  features  of  this  unique 
country. 

Holland  being  at  a  lower  level  than  any  land  on  the  continent 
of  Europe,  has  been  reclaimed  from  the  sea  by  an  amount  of 
labour,  in  the  way  of  artificial  ramparts  against  its  continued 
encroachments,  unparalleled  in  the  world.  Goldsmith  has  well 
described  this : — 

"  Methinks  her  patient  sons  before  me  stand, 
Where  the  broad  ocean  leans  against  the  land, 
And,  sedulous  to  stop  the  coming  tide. 
Lift  the  tall  rampire's  artificial  pride. 
Onwards,  mcthinks,  and  diligently  slow, 
The  firm  connected  bulwark  seems  to  grow ; 
S])reads  its  long  arms  amidst  the  wat'ry  roar, 
Scoops  out  an  empire,  and  usurps  the  shore  ; 
While  the  pent  ocean  rising  o'er  the  pile. 
Sees  an  amphibious  world  beneath  him  smile  ; 
The  slow  canal,  the  ycllow-blossom'd  vale, 
The  willow-tufted  bank,  the  gliding  sail, 
The  crowded  mart,  the  cultivated  plain, 
A  new  creation  rescued  from  his  leign." 

The  necessary  expense  of  this  continued  strain  on  the  energies 
and  wealth  of  the  inhabitants,  who  have  constantly  to  guard 
against  the  dangers  by  which  nature  has  surrounded  them, 
renders  Holland  a  very  expensive  country  for  residence.  The 
taxation  in  every  way  is  immense,  and  with  a  national  debt 
exceeding  that  of  England,  the  people  pay  local  taxes  to  a  large 
amount,  while  personal  property,  even  furniturt\  ]ii(-tures,  and 
prints,  are  taxed  by  yearly  rates,  increased  as  every  trifle  a  man 
acquires  in  his  home  is  increased  ;  hence  we  find  a  sordid  love  ot 


gain  among  the  middle  classes  degenerating  into  downright 
cheating  among  the  lower.  The  stranger  visiting  Holland  must 
expect  to  be  "  shorn  as  a  lamb,"  echoing  Goldsmith's  not  very 
complimentary  lines  on  the  Dutch,  following  those  in  the  poem 
we  have  just  quoted. 

On  reaching  the  Moerdyke  and  embarking  in  a  boat  winding 
among  the  large  islands  known  as  Overflakke,  Beyerland,  &c., 
and  which  seem  to  have  been  formed  originally  by  the  spreading 
currents  of  the  Maas  (or  Meuse)  over  the  once  sandy  levels  of  the 
sea,  the  stranger  will  more  fully  understand  the  amphibious  life 
of  the  Dutch — 

"  A  land  that  lies  at  anchor,  and  is  moored, 
In  which  they  do  not  live,  but  go  abroad."* 

With  that  strange  love,  born  of  early  associations,  a  Dutchman 
seems  to  dote  on  the  fetid  canals  of  his  infancy ;  and  wherever 
the  water  is  most  stagnant,  and  the  stench  most  oppressive,  there 
he  builds  his  summer-house,  and  goes  in  the  evening  to  smoke  his 
pipe  and  enjoy  himself.  How  happily  has  Washington  Irving 
depicted  this  abiding  trait  in  his  "  Knickerbocker!  "  The  Dutch- 
men of  America,  true  to  their  home  pleasures,  repaired  to  the 
dykes  "just  at  those  hours  when  the  falling  tide  had  left  the  beach 
uncovered,  that  they  might  snuff  up  the  fragrant  effluvia  of  mud 
and  mire,  which,  they  observed,  had  a  truly  wholesome  smell,  and 
reminded  them  of  Holland  ;  "  but  all  this  must  have  been  only  an 
approximation     to  the  real    thing,   inasmuch  as  the   smell  of  a 


134  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 

genuine  Dutch  canal,  when  its  fetid  waters  are  only  slightly 
moved  by  the  heavy,  slow-going  barges,  is  something  which 
exceeds  description.  Yet  in  these  localities  do  we  continually 
find  gaily-painted  pleasure-houses,  rejoicingly  inscribed  with 
words  over  their  portals,  such  as  "  Wei  tevreden  "  (well-con- 
tented) "  Gernstelyk  en  wel  tevreden "  (tranquil  and  content), 
and  others  all  equally  indicative  of  the  content  and  happiness 
they  produce  to  their  owners.* 

Nothing  can  exceed  the  vivid  colours  of  the  country  houses  we 
pass.  The  brightest  of  greens,  the  gayest  of  reds,  the  richest  of 
blues  cover  their  surfaces.  They  are  generally  separated  from  the 
road  by  the  ditches  which  form  a  sort  of  network  over  the 
landscape,  and  the  proper  way  of  reaching  them  is  indicated  by  a 
wooden  door,  regularly  built  up  and  standing  alone — made,  in 
fact,  for  making's  sake — on  the  edge  of  the  ditch.  These 
advanced  gateways  are  frequently  seen  in  the  pictures  of  Rem- 
brandt, Teniers,  and  Ostade  f  (Fig.  84).  You  cross  the  wooden 
bridge  and  enter  the  farm.  The  pasturage,  upon  which  so  much 
depends,  is  stacked  close  by  the  house,  and  is  generally  built  up 
round  a  strong  pole,  to  prevent  its  dispersion  in  a  stormy  wind 
which     sometimes    unmercifully   sweeps    over    the     flat    lands.* 


•  To  the  left  of  our  view  of  Bioeck  (Fig.  87)  tlicrc  is  a  yood  examjjlc  of  one  of  these 
erections  in  a  sort  of  Chinese  taste. 

t  Our  engraving  represents  one  near  Lcyden,  which  is  completely  iiicnlical  witli  those 
dcpictetl  two  centuries  ago  by  the  artists  nanicd. 

X  In  I'ig.  85  we  have  shown  this  useful  and  simple  mode  of  stacking,  which  is  universal 
in  llollind. 


ALBERT  CUYP  OF  DORT. 


135 


As  they  are  finished  they  are  surrounded  by  other  poles, 
supporting  a  movable  roof,  which  is  drawn  downward  as  the 
stack  is  consumed,  and  so  it  is  sheltered  while  any  remains. 
The  farm-house  will  strike  a  stranger  most  forcibly  by  the  solid 
comforts  it  exhibits,  the  rich  massive  furniture  it  contains,  the 
looking-glasses  in  ponderous  carved  frames,  and  the  heaps  of  rich 
old  Japanese  and  other  china  which  abound  everywhere, — an 
evidence  of  the  former  trade  of  the  country,  once  so  exclusively 


Fig.  84. — A  Dutch  Fann-gaie. 


Fig.  85. — Hay-stacks. 


and  prosperously  carried  on.  The  kitchens,  with  their  brightly- 
scoured  kettles,  bring  to  mind  the  kitchens  of  Gerard  Dow,  and 
the  sleek  kitchen-maids  seem  to  have  sat  to  Maas  for  his  servant- 
wenches.  But  the  wonders  of  the  farm  are  the  dairies  :  here  they 
revel  in  cleanliness,  sprinkling  the  stalls  of  the  stables  with  snow- 
white  sand,  stroked  into  a  variety  of  ornamental  geometric  figures 
by  the  broom,  when  the  cows  are  away  ;  and  when  these  are 
present  they  are  as  carefully  attended  to  as  if  they  were  children, 
their  tails  being  hung  in  loose  strings   to  the  ceiling,  lest  they 


,36  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND    WORKS  OF 

should  dabble  in  the  mire !  When  the  cold  season  sets  in,  the 
animals  are  protected  in  the  fields  by  a  coarse  sacking  fastened 
over  their  backs,  much  like  the  coverings  here  adopted  for 
favourite  greyhounds,  and  the  milk-maid  is  paddled  lazily  up 
the  stagnant  canals  that  pass  round  each  field  in  place  of  our 
hedges,  until  she  lands  on  the  square  patch  of  swampy  grass, 
achieves  her  labours,  gets  into  her  boat,  and  is  pushed  or  paddled 
by  a  stout  swain,  pipe  in  mouth,  to  the  next  rectangular  plot 
until  her  pails  are  sufiiciently  filled,  when  she  is  pushed  gently 
toward  the  farm.  There  is  no  use  in  hurrying  a  Dutchman  ;  he 
does  all  things  leisurely  ;  anxiety  on  your  part  will  only  make 
him  more  perseveringly  stolid,  and  irritation  more  obstinately 
immovable. 

Town  life  differs  from  country  life  only  in  the  extra  gaiety 
produced  by  better  dwellings,  and  a  greater  concourse  of  people  ; 
its  formality  is  as  great.  The  heavy  carriages  which  traverse  the 
streets  of  Amsterdam  upon  sledges  instead  of  wheels,  drawn  by 
large  black  horses,  are  more  indicative  to  a  stranger  of  a  funeral 
than  a  friendly  call.  The  provision  made  upon  the  gabled  houses 
for  the  board  and  lodging  of  the  favourite  storks  (Fig.  86)  also  indi- 
cates the  quiet  character  of  the  youthful  Hollander;*  there  are  no 
gamins  here,  such  as  infest  the  streets  of  Paris  :  they  could  not 
live  many  days  in  this  ungenial  clime.     We  can  fancy  the  misery 


♦  These  ncbls  are  consliuctcd  on  small  beams  of  wood,  |)laccvl  In-  the  iiiliahitaius  on 
their  house-ritlgcs,  as  it  is  considered  lucky  to  induce  storks  to  build.  They  come  icjjulaily 
to  their  old  nests  in  their  periodical  visits,  and  they  arc  never  molested.  To  kill  or  injure 
one  would  be  considered  as  a  sacrilegious  act. 


ALBERT  CUYP  OF  DORT.  137 

of  one  of  them,  seized  by  proper  officials,  and  put  into  the  heavy 
charity  dress,  to  learn  what  was  proper  of  a  Dutch  pedagogue. 
The  lugubrious  little  old  figures  that  pass  for  children  in  pictures 
of  the  old  native  school,  seem  to  have 
never  differed  from  their  parents  but  in 
age  or  size.  Formality  runs  through  every- 
thing in  this  land ;  the  night  watchman 
still 

*'  Breaks  your  rest  to  tell  you  what's  o'clock ;  " 

but  he  does  more  than  this  ;  he  announces 

,     ,  ,  ,  r  -,         Fig.  86.— A  Stork's  Nest. 

his  approach  by  a  huge  clapper  of  wood, 

which  he  rattles  loudly,  probably  to  warn  thieves  of  his  ap- 
proach, that  they  may  leisurely  pack  up  and  go  away,  and 
then  the  guardian,  like  Dogberry,  may  "  presently  call  the 
rest  of  the  watch  together,  and  thank  God  they  are  rid  ol 
a  knave ! " 

To  see  the  perfection  of  Dutch  cleanliness  or  village-life  run 
mad,  the  stranger  should  visit  the  renowned  Broeck  (Fig.  87),  in 
Waterland,  as  the  district  is  properly  termed  in  which  it  is 
situated.  From  Amsterdam  the  grand  ship  canal,  which  extends 
for  nearly  fifty  miles  to  the  Texel,  will  be  seen  en  route,  and  a  four- 
mile  drive  deposits  the  stranger  at  the  entrance  of  the  village. 
There  he  must  alight  and  walk  over  the  village,  for  all  carriages 
and  horses  are  forbidden  to  enter  this  paradise  of  cleanliness.  It 
is  recorded  that  the  Emperor  Alexander  was  obliged  to  take  off 
his  shoes  before  entering  a  house.     A  pile  of  wooden  sabots  at  the 


138 


HOMES,   HAUNTS,   AND    WORKS  OF 


doors  testify  that  usual  custom  of  its  inhabitants  (Fig.  88).*  The 
rage  for  "  keeping  all  tidy  "  has  even  carried  its  inhabitants  so  far 
as  to  tamper  with  the  dearest  of  a  Dutchman's  treasures — his 
pipe  ;  for  it  is  stipulated  that  he  wear  over  it  a  wire  net-work,  to 


f^J^^. 


Fig.  87.— The  Village  of  Biocck. 


prevent  the  ashes  from  falling  on  the  footpaths;  these  are  con- 


•  These  sabots,  once  so  popularly  known  by  name  in  England,  when  it  was  the  custom 
to  talk  of  William  III.  as  having  saved  the  nation  from  "  popery,  slavery,  and  wooden 
shoes,"  are  generally  formed  of  willow  and  elm.  They  are  very  cheap,  and  threepence  will 
purchase  a  pair  of  the  commonest  kind,  such  as  we  engrave  ;  but  others  arc  ornamented 
with  carved  bows  and  buckles,  painted  black,  and  smart  looking  ;  these  are  much  dearer, 
and  worn  by  the  better  class  of  farm-servants,  who  sometimes  protect  the  foot  by  a  soft 
inner  shoe  of  list. 


ALBERT  CUFF  OF  DORT.  139 

structed  of  small  coloured  bricks,  arranged  in  fancy  patterns,  and 
are  sometimes  sanded  and  swept  in  forms  like  those  we  have 
described  in  dairies.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  brightness  of  the 
paint,  the  polished  coloured  tiles  on  the  roofs,  or  the  perfect 
freedom  from  dirt  exhibited  by  the  cottages,  which  look  like 
wooden  Noah's  arks  in  a  genteel  toy-shop.  The  people  who  live 
in  this  happy  valley  are  mostly  well  off  in  the  world,  and  have 
made  fortunes  in  trade,  retiring  here  to  enjoy  Dutch  felicity.  The 
pavilion  and  garden  of  one  rich  old  clergyman.  Mynheer  Bakker, 
has  lonsf  been  a  theme  of  admiration.     The  good  man  revelled  in 


A  Wooden  Shoe. 


a  caricature  of  a  garden  in  which  he  sunk  much  money ;  and  at 
his  death  left  a  will  by  which  it  should  be  kept  up.  This  is  no 
inexpensive  thing  in  Broeck,  for,  owing  to  the  boggy  nature  of 
the  soil,  it  continually  requires  attention  and  renovation.*  In  this 
garden  are  crowded  summer-houses  and  temples  of  every  fanciful 
style  yet  "  unclassified."  Plump  Dutch  divinities  stare  at  wooden 
clergymen,  who  pore  over  wooden  books  in  sequestered  corners  ; 
while  wooden  sportsmen  aim  at  wooden  ducks  rotting  on  the 
stagnant  water.     The  climax  of  absurdity  is  reached  at  a  small 

*  The  gardener  informed  us  that  the  surface  sunk  at  the  rate  of  half  a  foot  in  a  year. 


140  HOMES,   HAUNTS,   AND    WORKS  OF 

cottage  constructed  in  the  garden,  to  show,  as  our  guide  informed 
us,  how  the  country  folks  "  make  the  money,"  You  enter,  and 
your  guide  disappears  as  rapidly  as  a  Dutchman  can,  and  leaves 
you  to  contemplate  a  well-furnished  room,  with  abundance  ot 
crockery,  an  immense  clock,  and  a  well-stored  tea-table,  at  which 
sit  two  wooden  puppets,  as  large  as  life ;  the  old  man  smoking  his 
pipe,  and  preparing  the  flax,  which  the  old  woman  spins,  after  the 
field  labours  are  over.  All  the  movements  of  these  figures  are 
made  by  clockwork,  worked  by  the  invisible  gardener,  and 
concealed  under  the  floor.  In  former  times  the  good  lady 
hummed  a  song  ;  but  her  machinery  being  now  out  of  order,  the 
stranger  is  only  greeted  on  his  entrance  by  some  spasmodic  yelps 
from  a  grim  wooden  dog,  that  always  faithfully  keeps  watch  and 
ward  at  her  feet. 

In  Broeck  no  one  enters  a  house  by  the  front  door,  nor  is  any 
one  seen  at  a  front  window.  The  front  of  a  house  is  where  the 
"  best  parlours  "  are,  which  are  sacred  to  cleanliness  and  solitude. 
Irving's  description  of  such  an  apartment  is  rigidly  true :  "  the 
mistress  and  her  confidential  maid  visited  it  once  a  week,  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  it  a  thorough  cleaning,  and  putting  things  to 
rights  ;  always  taking  the  precaution  of  leaving  their  shoes  at 
the  door,  and  entering  devoutly  on  their  stocking-feet.  After 
scrubbing  the  floor,  sprinkling  it  with  fine  white  sand,  which  was 
curiously  stroked  into  angles  and  curves  and  rhomboids ;  after 
washing  the  windows,  rubbing  and  polishing  the  furniture,  and 
putting  a  new  bunch  ot  evergreens  in  the  fire-place,  the  window 
shutters  were  again  closed  to  keep  out   the  ilies,  and  the  room 


ALBERT  CUYP  OF  DORT. 


141 


carefully  locked  up  till  the  revolution  of  time  brought  round  the 
weekly  cleaning-day,"     The  people  of  Broeck  always  enter  their 


Fi?.  8q. — Dutch  Head-dresses. 


houses  by  back  doors,  like  so  many  burglars  ;  and  to  ensure  the 
front  door  from  unholy  approach,  the  steps  leading  up  to  it  are 
removed,  never  to  be  placed  there  but  when  three  great  occasions 


Fig.  90. — A  Fanner's  "Wife. 


open  the  mystic  gate,  and  these  are  births,  marriages,  and 
funerals  ;  so  that  to  enter  a  Dutchman's  house  by  that  way  is 
indeed  an  "  event." 


142 


HOMES,   HAUNTS,  AND    WORKS  OF 


The  country  girls  generally  wear  the  plain  and  ugly  caps 
represented  in  our  cuts  (Fig.  89) ;  but  the  richer  farmers' 
daughters,  particularly  in  North  Holland,  are  extremely  fond  of 
a  display  of  the  precious  metals  in  their  head-dress.  Pins  of 
gold,  to  which  heavy  pendants  hang,  and  elaborated  ear-rings 
frequently  appear,  and  occasionally  the  hair  is  overlaid  entirely 
by  thin  plates  of  gold  covered  with  lace  ;  the  forehead   banded 


Fig.  91. — A  Dutch  Road  Scene. 


with  silver  richly  engraved ;  bunches  ol  light  gold  flowers  hang 
at  each  side  of  the  face,  and  pins  and  rosettes  are  stuck  above 
them.  We  have  engraved  a  specimen  of  this  oppressive  finery, 
(Fig.  90),  which  is  sometimes  further  enriched  by  a  few  diamonds 
on  the  frontlet  of  the  wealthy  ladies  ot  Broeck  when  they  appear 
on  a  Sunday  at  church. 

It  would  seem  as  if  a  Dutchman  really  loved  the  ponderous, 
for  nowhere  else  may  be  seen   the  weighty  wooden   carriages  in 


ALBERT  CUYP  OF  DORT.  *"^£rjSJii^3*^  ' 


which  they  delight  to  drive  along  the  country  roads  ;  they  are 
solid  constructions  of  timber,  elaborately  carved  and  painted, 
resting  on  the  axles,  and  never  having  springs  (Fig.  91),  which, 
indeed,  are  not  so  essentially  necessary  as  with  us,  owing  to  the 
softness  and  flatness  of  the  roads.  The  guide-posts  are  equally 
massive,  and  the  outstretched  hands  with  stumpy  fingers  which 
point  the  route  to  be  taken,  seem  to  be  made  for  future  genera- 
tions. The  wooden  shoes  of  the  peasantry  make  the  foot  the  most 
conspicuous  part  of  the  body,  and  ensure  slow- 
ness ;  while  in  some  places  the  horses  are  pro- 
vided with  a  broad  patten  strapped  across  the 
foot,  and  making  their  movements  as  measured 
and  sedate  as  their  masters.*  The  tenderness 
with  which  they  look  after  their  beasts,  and  comb 
and  plait  their  tails,  shows  no  necessity  for  a 
"  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Animals  "  in  Holland.  The  solicitude  for  their 
cows  and  pet  storks  we  have  already  noted  ;  and  ^^^'  ^^''^^  Horse- 
the  number  of  their  charitable  institutions  is  so 
great,  that  poverty  or  want  never  meets  the  eye  of  a  traveller. 
There  is  a  well-fed  comfort  pervading  all  classes,  and  a 
scrupulous    neatness    and    order   over    the    whole    country,    the 


*  The  boggy  nature  of  the  soil  of  Holland,  and  the  mischief  which  might  be  done  by 
the  sinking  of  a  horse's  feet,  have  led  to  these  inventions.  The  low  countries  of  England  can 
also  produce  examples  of  broad  protections  to  prevent  a  horse  from  sinking  or  cutting 
up  the  swampy  land,  somewhat  similar  to  those  used  in  Holland,  and  which  entirely  sur- 
round the  shoe. 


,44  HOMES,   HAUNTS,  AXD    WORKS. 

result  of  a  constant  cheerful  industry,  which  scarcely  asks  for 
rest. 

It  is  not  the  custom  ol  the  travelling  English  to  visit  Holland  ; 
it  is  a  terra  incognita  to  them,  though  other  parts  of  Europe  are 
filled  by  them  to  repletion.  In  these  pages  we  have  endeavoured 
to  bring  its  features  strongly  before  our  readers,  to  enable  them, 
if  they  will,  by  aid  of  pen  and  pencil,  to  travel  in  imagination 
with  us  over  the  land  of  Cuyp,  Rembrandt,  and  Paul  Potter. 


THE   HOME   OF   PAUL   POTTER. 


jHE  Hague  has  ahva3's  been  considered  the  most  aris- 
tocratic and  pleasant  of  Dutch  towns.  Its  old  name, 
Gravenhaage,  indicates  its  position  as  the  boundary  of 
the  principality  of  the  ancient  Counts  of  Holland.  Its  pleasant 
and  healthy  position  gave  it  an  advantage  over  most  other  towns 
when  Holland  became  a  kingdom,  and  it  was  chosen  as  the 
residence  of  the  court.  Its  close  proximity  to  the  sea,  the  healthy 
character  of  its  location,  and  the  fresh  beauty  of  the  wood  which 
for  ages  was  allowed  to  grow  as  nature  pleased  in  its  close 
vicinage,  were  all  charms  uncombined  elsewhere,  and  "  Ics  deliccs 
dc  la  Ilayc"  were  spoken  of  even  at  the  court  of  ^"ersailles.  The 
palace  of  the  Stadtholder  was  here,  and  the  picturesque  pile  of 
building  used  as  the  town-hall  was  the  scene  of  many  an  event 
and  discussion  vital  to  the  interests  of  Holland,  in  an  age  fruitful 
of  great  events  to  that  country,  whose  annals  possess  an  interest 
second  to  those  of  no  other  modern  European  state.  It  would 
almost  be  expected  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  marshy  tract 
of  unproductive  sand  which  forms  this  country,  would  be  left  to 
the  quiet  possession  of  the  industrious  people  who  had  with  such 
unwearied  assiduity  reclaimed  it  from  the  sea.     Scarcely  would  it 


m8 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AM)   WORKS  OF 


be  possible  to  mark  out  a  place  in   the  old  maps  of  Europe  less 
attractive  for  the  foundation  of  a  settlement,  presenting  greater 


^  p ctitl'Us    y^  otte/f.-^-  ■ 


difficulties  to  bo  overcome,  and  dciiianding  more  constant  care  to 
preserve   wlu-n    llicsc    dinicullics  had    been    conquered.      It  \vas 


PAUL  POTTER. 


149 


rescued  from  the  sea  only  to  be  reclaimed  by  it  upon  the  slightest 
relaxation  of  vigilant  watchfulness ;    but   the   fear   of  encroach- 


^\<g.  94. — Town  Hal],  the  Ha^'ue. 

ments  from  their  natural   enemy  was  as  nothing  to  the  native 
Hollanders,   compared    to  those   which   had    menaced   for  many 


150  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


centuries  their  civil  and  religious  liberties  ;  and  the  records  of  no 
country  present  more  noble  instances  of  unflinching  patriotism 
and  bold  love  of  liberty  than  theirs  do,  when  its  sons  were  vindi- 
cating for  its  unwholesome  swamps  the  only  attractiveness  they 
could  ever  possess — the  consciousness  that  it  was  the  country  of 
free  men. 

We  have  already  noted,  in  the  lives  of  Rembrandt  and  Cu}'p, 
the  quietude  with  which  their  days  passed  amidst  the  din  and 
bustle  of  an  age  of  political  and  religious  warfare.  In  Paul 
Potter  we  have  another  instance  of  this  mental  abstraction,  which 
could  allow  the  mind  to  be  withdrawn  from  the  ordinary  doings  of 
the  world,  to  pursue  a  calm  course  of  its  own,  achieving  its  own 
greatness  by  a  placid  energy  which  could  not  be  turned  aside 
from  its  goal.  His  life  was  a  short  one,  but  he  employed  his 
brief  sojourn  most  earnestly  in  the  study  of  Art  through  Nature. 
He  won,  and  will  ever  hold,  an  undying  name  as  its  true 
exponent,  while  his  works  increase  in  value  as  time  adds  to 
their  years,  and  true  criticism  advances  our  knowledge.  Thus 
the  painting  which  delighted  at  first  as  a  simple  transcript  of 
nature,  becomes,  as  we  study  it  more,  like  nature  itself — a  hidden 
mine  of  poetry,  awaiting  the  research  of  the  earnest  studiMit  who 
will  seek  to  discover  it. 

The  Hague  may  be  considered  as  the  "homo  "  of  Paul  Potter, 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word — that  sense  which  makes  the  word 
convey  to  the  mind  all  that  is  genial  and  lovable,  and  that  marks 
the  happy  residence  where  intellect  expands  itself  freely,  and 
attaches    itself    fondly    to    the    place    of    its    growtli.       I  hoiii^li 


Amsterdam  was  the  city  of  his  early  days,  the  Hague  was  the 
home  of  his  choice,  and  his  happiest  years  were  passed  within  its 
boundaries  ;  or  in  wandering  beneath  the  shade  of  its  neigh- 
bouring wood ;  or  seeking  subjects  in  the  fertile  fields  of  its 
vicinity.  His  desires  and  wants  w^ere  bounded  by  this  simple 
practice,  and  his  native  genius  could  elevate  all  he  saw  so  readily 
and  well,  as  to  insure  a  place  of  honour  on  the  walls  of  a  palace 
to  the  simplest  rural  scene  Holland  might  offer  to  his  inspired 
pencil. 

Paul  Potter  was  bom,  in  the  year  1625,  in  the  town  of 
Enkhuysen,  where  his  father  practised  art,  but  ranked  low  as  a 
painter.  His  ancestors  had  held  honourable  posts  in  that  city, 
and  were  descended  from  the  noble  house  of  Egmont.  Soon  after 
his  birth  his  father  went  to  Amsterdam  as  a  permanent  residence, 
and  here  he  taught  his  son  all  that  he  knew  of  the  rudiments  of 
art.  He  never  had  another  master,  nor  did  he  seem  to  want  one, 
for  his  own  genius  did  for  him  what  no  master  alone  could  effect ; 
and  at  fourteen  years  of  age  his  great  ability  as  an  artist  was 
acknowledged ;  but  he  felt  the  trammels  of  home  life,  and  left  it 
soon  afterwards  for  the  Hague. 

Holland  at  this  time  had  declared  itself  free  from  foreign  yoke; 
the  tyranny,  falsehood,  and  cruelty  of  Spanish  rule  had  been 
effectually  opposed,  even  to  the  partial  destruction  of  the  country, 
and  a  brighter  day  dawned   on  its  brave  people.*      Spain  had 


*  The  i^reat  dykes,  upon  wliich  the  very  existence  of  the  country  depends,  as  already 
stated  at  p.  127,  were  cut  in  many  places  to  submerge  invading  amiies  ;  and  at  Leyden, 
during  the  memorable  siege  in  1575,  the  sea  flowed  up  to  the  walls  of  the  town,  destroviii" 


152  HOMES,  IIACXTS,  A XI)   WURKS  OF 


become  weakened  in  its  resources,  Germany  was  torn  by 
religious  wars,  France  was  the  ally  of  Holland,  while  England 
was  busied  with  its  own  great  civil  war,  in  determined  opposition 
to  the  encroachments  on  its  liberties  made  by  Charles  I,  Holland 
at  last  held  a  proud  and  independent  position  under  its  Stadt- 
holder,  Prince  Frederick  Henry.  By  land  its  arms  had  been 
successful,  but  at  sea  they  were  glorious ;  and  the  brilliant 
victory  of  Van  Tromp,  known  by  the  name  of  the  battle  of  the 
Downs,  from  having  been  fought  off  the  coast  of  England  on  the 
2 1  St  of  October,  1639,  raised  the  naval  reputation  of  Holland  to 
the  highest  point.  The  trade  of  the  country  had  steadily 
increased,  and  the  distant  settlements  of  Brazil  and  Batavia,  as 
well  as  the  enormous  trade  with  the  East  and  West  Indies, 
enriched  the  merchants  of  the  land  immensely.  Although  taxa- 
tion was  enormous,  and  its  national  debt  excessive,  the  country 
enjoyed  great  wealth  and  power  and  the  taste  for  pictures  and 
the  luxuries  of  life  increased  greatly. 

The  prospects  of  Potter  were  therefore  good ;  and  the  objection 
made  by  the  rich  architect,  Balkenende,  whi>n  he  asked  his 
daughter  Adrienne  in  marriage,  that  he  was  "  onlv  an  animal- 
painter,"  and  ineligible  for  such  an  honour,  was  soon  removed  by 
the  patronage  so  profitably  enjoyed  by  the  young  artist ;  at  the 


above  one  IhousaiKi  Spanish  solilicis,  the  iiilial)iUuits  sallyinij  out  in  boats,  and  continuing 
an  amjihibious  combat  willi  others  who  had  ascended  trees.  The  whole  countiy  (or  twenty 
lea(^cs  around  was  ruined  for  agricultural  pursuits  for  many  years.  Indeed,  during  these 
wars,  it  became  almost  reduced  to  its  urit;inal  state  a  tract  of  waste  mud,  saml,  and  stagnant 
water. 


PAUL  POTTER. 


'53 


age  of  twenty-five,  Potter  therefore  married  the  lady,  somewhat 
gay  and  flighty  for  a  Dutchwoman,  and  settled  himself  in  one  of 
the  best  houses  of  the  town,  which  was  soon  frequented  by  the 
principal  men  of  Holland,  who  deluged  the  painter  with  com- 
missions, which  he  executed  with  untiring  energy  and  comparative 
ease,  because  he  had  in  the  close  vicinity  of  his  home  an  abundant 


Fig-  95- — A  Dutch  Polder. 

field  of  study,  and  his  favourite  flocks  and  herds  were  ever  near 
him  in  infinite  variety. 

The  rich  character  of  the  vegetation  of  Holland  is  due  to  the 
irrigation  the  soil  continually  receives.  The  whole  country  is 
a  network  of  canals,  but  it  is  in  "  the  Polders  "  (Fig.  95)  that  the 
greatest  fertility  is  seen ;  this  is  a  technical  term  for  a  tract  of 
ground  which  has  been  once  a  morass  or  lake,  below  the  level  of 
the  sea,  but  which  has  been  reclaimed  by  clearing  away  the 
water.     The  great   lake  of  Haarlem  has  recently  been  converted 


154  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

into  most  profitable  garden  and  pasture-land  in  this  way.  This 
is  done  by  the  simple  process  of  forming  a  raised  bank  all  round 
the  lake,  to  prevent  water  from  flowing  into  it.  A  series  of  wind- 
mills, each  working  water-wheels,  is  then  erected  on  this  dyke  to 
pump  the  water  upward  into  a  canal  on  their  own  level,  from 
whence  it  is  drained  off  into  the  sea,  or  lifted  into  a  series  of 
higher  canals  by  the  same  wind-agency.  Thus  we  find  sometimes 
three  or  four  stages  of  canals  used  to  lift  the  water  to  a  proper 
level  for  drainage.  The  fertile  soil  which  forms  the  bed  of  the 
Polder  is  laid  out  into  a  series  of  fields  in  the  form  of  parallelo- 
grams, each  separated  on  all  sides  by  a  deep  ditch,  the  waters  in 
which  form  the  only  means  of  communication  with  the  fields,  and 
render  other  guard  over  cattle  unnecessary,  as  they  cannot  roam 
from  the  confined  space  allotted  to  them.  The  small  ditches  are 
continually  kept  to  a  proper  level  by  the  industrious  water-mills, 
and  the  canals  thus  filled  communicate  with  the  others  which 
intersect  the  country,  and  give  water-way*  for  commerce  of  all 
kinds,  and  the  supply  of  the  markets.  Thus  a  very  large  pastoral 
portion  of  Holland  is  artificial,  and  requires  constant  watching ; 
the  least  neglect  or  inattention  might  prejudice  much  property, 
and  ruin  an  agricultural  district,!     It  has  been  well  obser\'ed  that 


♦  This  simple  and  convenient  mode  of  transit  is  abundantly  adopted  in  Holland.  It 
suits  the  quiet  liabits  ol"  the  pcoi)le  best  to  glide  leisurely  over  tlie  canals  from  town  to  town 
in  the  treckschuyt,  or  passenj^cr-boat  in  the  summer  ;  wiiiie  in  the  winter  season  the  whole 
])oj)ulation  d(m  their  skates,  and  travel  with  {jreat  rajiiility  over  tiic  ice,  which  aflords 
increased  facilities  for  communication  all  over  tiic  country.  Market-wonicu  will  cany 
their  wares  an  incredilile  distance  in  this  way. 

t  So  short  a  time  ago  as  the  year  1825,  the  whole  of  Ilolhmd  was  in  jjreat  danger  fiom 


PAUL  POTTER.  155 


"the  inhabitant  of  the  provinces  bordering  on  the   sea,   or  the 
Rhine,  constantly  threatened  with  the  danger  of  submersion,  is 
not  more  secure  than  he  who  dwells  on  the  side  of  Etna,  or  at  the 
foot  of  Vesuvius,  with  a  volcano  heaving  beneath  him.    A  stranger 
can  have  a  full  impression  of  this  only  when  he  walks  at  the  foot 
of  one  of  these  vast  dykes,  and  hears  the  roar  of  the  waves  on 
the  outside,  sixteen  or  twenty  feet  higher  than  his  head."*    In  the 
days  of  Potter  the  system  of  perfect  drainage  now  seen  in  Holland 
had  not  been  introduced  ;  the  small  streams  w^ere  allowed  to  flow 
and  spread  lazily  over  the  land,  and  the  engraving  we  copy  of  a 
Dutch  seaport  (Fig.  96),  from  the  curious  "  Book  of  Emblems,"  by 
J.  Cats,  published  at  Dort  in  1635,  gives  an  excellent  idea  of  this. 
The  sluggish  stream  which  flows  from  the  village  inundates  the 
fields  irregularly,  and  men  are  employed  in  marking  its  boggy 
boundaries  by  warning-posts.     The  sea-wall  for  the  protection  of 
the  port,  formed  by  the  stems  of  trees,  stretches  far  away,  and 
makes  an  agreeable  promenade.     These  ramparts  are  generally 
formed  of  clay,  their  surface  sometimes  being  protected  by  wicker- 
work  of  willow-twigs,  which,  as  they  perish  in  the  course  of  three 
or  four   years,  require    to   be    constantly  watched  and  renewed. 


the  quantity  of  water  which  rushed  from  the  mouths  of  the  Rhine  and  Meuse,  and  the  extra- 
ordinar}'  height  of  the  tides.  It  is  declared  that  had  the  sea  continued  to  rise  but  one 
quarter  of  an  hour  more,  the  great  dykes  which  protect  Amsterdam  would  have  overflowed, 
and  that  city  might  have  been  ruined.  As  it  was,  it  occupied  more  than  two  years  of 
incessant  labour  to  repair  the  damage  done. 

*  The  coat  of  arms  of  the  province  of  Zealand  fancifully  alludes  to  the  geographical 
position  it  holds,  and  consists  of  a  lion  half  submerged  in  the  waves,  with  the  motto,  ^^Luctor 
et  emergo,"  I  struggle  to  keep  above  water. 


'56 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD   WORKS  OF 


The  base,  if  not  protected  by  piles,  is  generally  faced  with  stones, 
or  walled  with  hard-baked  bricks,  called  clinkers,  while  rows  of 
piles  form  breakwaters  as  a  further  protection  to  their  solidity. 
Thus  continuously  has  the  Hollander  to  labour  in  the  preservation 
of  his  country,  and  nowhere  is  industry  so  strikingly  visible  as 
among  the  Dutch  ;  for  it  meets  the  eye  continually,  and  challenges 
observation  everywhere.     The  ground  beneath  the  feet  is  "  made 


V\'^.  96.  — A  Dutch  Seaport :   1635. 


earth,"  to  use  a  gardener's  term  ;  sometimes  brought  from  con- 
siderable distances,  and  only  preserved  from  being  washed  away 
by  the  embankments  just  alluded  to.  This  necessary  attention  to 
the  state  of  the  land  produces  an  extremely  artificial  look  over  its 
entire  surface.  It  seems  as  if  the  whole  country  had  been 
constructed  by  human  labour;  more  particularly  as  the  Hollander 
scarcely  allows  a  blade  of  grass  to  grow  freely — all  is  trimmed 
and  tended  with  care  ;  while  bushes  and  shrubs  are  subjected  to 


the  gardener's  shears,  and  cut  into  those  wonderful  figures  of 
birds  and  beasts  occasionally  to  be  seen  in  quiet  English  villages, 
where  Dutch  taste  has  penetrated.*  Even  large  trees  occasionally 
assume  the  form  of  square  masses  of  foliage  supported  on  naked 
upright  stems,  or  else  are  tortured  on  iron  frameworks  till  they 
look  as  little  like  trees  as  a  Chinese  lady's  foot  resembles  that  of 
the  Venus  de  Medicis. 

In  Holland  the  laws  of  nature  seem  to  be  reversed  ;  the  sea  is 
higher  than  the  land — the  lowest  ground  in  the  country  is  24  feet 
below  high-water  mark,  and  when  the  tide  is  driven  high  by  the 
wind,  30  feet !  In  no  other  country  do  the  keels  of  the  ships  float 
above  the  chimneys  of  the  houses,  and  nowhere  else  does  the  frog, 
croaking  from  among  the  bulrushes,  look  down  upon  the  swallow 
on  the  house-top.  Where  rivers  take  their  course,  it  is  not  in  beds 
of  their  own  choosing ;  they  are  compelled  to  pass  through  canals, 
and  are  confined  within  fixed  bounds  by  the  stupendous  mounds 
imposed  on  them  by  human  art,  which  has  also  succeeded  in 
overcoming  the  "  everywhere-else "  resistless  impetuosity  of  the 
ocean.  In  a  very  extensive  range  of  the  country  there  is  not  a 
stone  or  pebble  to  be  found  in  the  alluvial  or  sandy  soil ;  and 
there  are  no  hills,  save  such  as  are  raised  by  the  winds  ;  unless, 
indeed,  we  take  into  consideration  those  vast  artificial  mountains 
of  granite  which  have  been  brought  at  enormous  expense  from 
Norway  and  Sweden,  and  sunk  under  water  to  serve  as  barriers 
to    the    sea.      Excepting    the   eastern    provinces,   the   parks   of 


See  subsequent  article,  "  The  Dutch  Landscape  and  Flowei-Painters." 

.  JRSIT7] 


is8  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  A  XT)   WORKS  OF 

Haarlem  and  the  Hague,  and  the  avenues  leading  from  one 
city  to  another,  the  land  does  not  produce  much  wood  ;  but  then 
entire  Norwegian  forests  have  been  buried  beneath  the  mud  in 
the  shape  of  piles.* 

It  is  in  some  degree  surprising  that  so  pure  and  good  a  school 
of  natural  art  should  have  been  formed  by  its  native-born 
painters,  and  still  more  remarkable  that  men  thus  compelled  to 
see  only  conventional  views  of  nature's  beauties,  should  look  upon 
the  goddess  dressed  in  Dutch  taste,  but  delineate  her  in  all  the 
freedom  of  the  purest  innocence  and  simplicity.  We  might  have 
expected  a  sort  of  Chinese  landscape  painting  to  have  pre- 
dominated, and  cattle  to  have  rivalled  in  pictures  the  productions 
of  their  own  pottery  at  Delft ;  but  the  painters  of  Holland  never 
committed  this  error,  they  seem  to  have  avoided  with  scrupulous 
care  any  other  than  the  purest  features  nature  presented  to  them. 
To  them  she  denied  her  grander  traits — the  rocky  beauties  of 
Switzerland,  or  the  verdant  graces  of  Italy.  With  them  the  all- 
glorious  Rhine  became  a  flat  heavy  stream,  pouring  its  many 
mouths  to  the  sea  in  a  swamp  of  mud ;  yet  limited  as  the  field  of 
native  art  thus  necessarily  became,  the  Dutch  artists,  by  their 
unwearied  study  of  nature,  and  profound  and  patient  delineation 
of  its  most  minute  characteristics,  founded  a  school  at  once 
original  and  excellent. 

Among  all  their  national  painters,  none  held  higher  rank 
than   Paul   Potter,  whose   finest  work,  "The  Young    Bull,"  still 


PAUL  POTTER.  159 


decorates  the  public  gallery  of  the  Hague,  the  favourite  residence 
of  the  painter,  the  scene  of  his  studies  and  his  triumphs,  but 
wanting,  alas  !  in  the  greatest  joy  of  all — domestic  felicity.  His 
wife  was  fond  of  flirtations,  which  gave  the  peaceful  painter 
constant  uneasiness,  and  to  such  an  extreme  was  this  at  last 
carried,  that  the  artist  one  day  caught  his  wife  listening  to  one  of 
her  admirers ;  when,  enraged  beyond  measure,  he  cast  over  them 
the  net-work  he  carried  on  his  arm,  and  which  he  had  taken 
from  his  horse,  who  wore  it  to  keep  off  the  flies ;  then  tying  them 
together  with  it,  he  exposed  them  both  to  the  laughter  of  the 
friends  in  his  house.  So  ridiculous  and  disgraceful  an  affair 
soon  became  the  talk  of  the  town,  and  at  last  grew  to  be  so 
disagreeable  as  to  oblige  the  painter  to  remove  to  Amsterdam. 

It  was  in  1652  that  the  painter  settled  in  that  city.  The 
Burgomaster  Tulp  was  his  great  patron,  and  enriched  his  fine 
gallery  with  the  principal  works  of  the  artist.  Amsterdam  was 
at  this  period  one  of  the  wealthiest  of  European  cities,  and  its 
rich  traders  delighted  in  embellishing  their  houses  with  pictures, 
carvings,  and  the  rarest  and  most  costly  works  of  India,  China, 
and  Japan — a  taste  which  has  survived  to  the  present  day ;  and 
nowhere  is  so  much  of  the  finest  work  of  this  kind  to  be  seen 
as  in  Holland,  while  rare  old  china  is  in  the  dealers'  shops 
as  common  as  Staffordshire  ware  among  ourselves.  The  noble 
old  houses  of  Antwerp,  constructed  by  the  De  Ruyters,  the  Van 
Tulps,  and  the  rich  burghers  of  old  days,  still  stand  to  attest 
their  wealth  and  magnificence ;  but  if  we  would  see  the  city  as  in 
the   days   of  its   greatest  glory,  we  must   turn    over   the   pages 


of  the  chroniclers  of  its  great  public  events.  There  is  a 
magnificent  volume  devoted  to  a  detail  of  the  reception  given 
by  the  city  to  Catherine  de  Medicis,  embellished  by  the  most 
minute  and  beautiful  engravings  by  Savery,  and  we  have 
selected  a  view  on  the  grand  canal  (Fig.  97)  from  this  rare  volume, 
to  illustrate  the  Amsterdam  of  Potter's  era.*  The  view  com- 
prises a  group  of  imposing  houses,  intersected  by  smaller  canals, 
over  which  miniature  bridges  are  carried,  and  it  gives  an 
excellent  idea  of  the  characteristics  of  one  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary cities  of  Europe.  Some  few  of  these  noble  mansions 
still  remain  in  Amsterdam  in  all  their  pristine  integrity,  giving 
a  stately  look  to  its  old  quays  as  their  time-honoured  fronts 
surmount  the  trees  which  line  the  borders  of  the  canals.  Their 
architectural  characteristics  might  be  considered  as  "  debased " 
in  the  judgment  of  a  severe  student  of  architecture  ;  but  they 
have  an  imposing  effect  with  their  rich  arcades,  floriated 
pilasters,  and  fanciful  gabled  fronts,  surmounted  by  statues  or 
vases  of  flowers. 

After  the  removal  of  Potter  to  Amsterdam,  he  enlarged  the 
proportions  of  his  pictures,  forgetful  of  the  important  fact  that 
size  does  not  constitute  greatness — for  the  ancient  artists  of 
Greece  developed  their  genius  as  grandly  upon  an  intaglio  or 
a  coin    as  they  did  upon   the  Klgin  marbles.     Ho  was,  in   fact, 


•  It  is  cnlilled  "  Ulyde  Inkomst  dor  Alleicloi)rhij^lili}^lislc  Kniiinninnc  Mari.i  dc' 
Medici  t'Ainstcrduni,"  and  was  i)ul)lishcd  in  tlial  city  in  i()j<);  her  niajtsty  having;  i>aid 
Ihe  visit  on  licr  way  to  ICnt;land,  to  visit  lici  il.m^litii,  1  Icniietla-Maiia,  wilL-of  our  Cliarles  I. 


-J 


PAUL  POTTER. 


i6i 


betrayed  into  this  by  emulation  rather  than  design,  for  he  saw 
there,  in  the  possession  of  wealthy  amateurs,  pictures  of  far 
larger  proportions  than  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  painting, 
and  he  was  anxious  that  size  should  be  no  bar  to  his  success. 


lig.  97. — Auislcidaiu  ill  1O39. 

The  life-sized  pictures  of  animals  he  now  painted,  although 
characterised  by  vigour  and  truth  of  touch,  lose  greatly  in 
interest  and  beauty  by  their  gigantic  proportions,  and  the 
celebrated   bull    at   the   Hague  disappoints  at  first  sight,  while 

Y 


i62  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 

few  would  wish  to  possess  it  in  preference  to  his  less  obtrusive 
works.  But  to  whatever  scale  the  artist  worked,  he  was  always 
the  captivating  exponent  of  simple  nature,  and  gave  a  truth,  and 
a  life,  and  a  poetry  to  his  scenes,  which  elevate  the  commonplace 
to  the  classic. 

An  early  death  awaited  the  artist ;  he  had  not  completed 
his  twenty-ninth  year  when  he  expired  of  a  decline,  leaving 
behind  him  the  wife  he  fondly  loved,  in  spite  of  her  blamable 
levities,  and  a  little  daughter  three  years  old.  In  the  great 
chapel  at  Amsterdam  (Fig.  98)  lie  the  remains  of  Paul  Potter, 
one  of  the  greatest  artists  of  Holland.  He  reposes  in  the  very 
reverse  of  the  quiet  scenes  he  loved  so  well  to  depict.  All  around 
is  the  bustle  of  life,  the  throng  of  commerce,  the  din  of  busy 
feet.  The  quaint  and  characteristic  steeple  peeps  over  tall 
warehouses,  surrounding  busy  docks  where  produce  is  unladen 
from  all  quarters  of  the  world.  You  cannot  rest  on  the  bridges 
which  span  the  canal  to  reflect  on  the  mausoleum  of  the  painter, 
for  the  heavily-laden  cart  is  constantly  moving  with  merchandise, 
or  the  quaint  old  coach  almost  noiselessly  sliding  on  its  sledge  in 
place  of  wheels,  might  too  dangerously  disturb  your  reverie. 
There  is  something  incongruous  in  seeking  the  grave  of  the 
pastoral  painter  in  such  ungenial  scenes  ;  and  in  the  very  midst 
of  "life's  fitful  fever"  to  find  the  grave  of  one  who  revelled  in 
"fresh  fields  and  pastures  new;"  who  studied  them  with  a  poet's 
love,  and  delineated  them  with  the  highest  artistic  power;  whose 
whole  soul  was  imbued  with  a  love  of  nature,  and  who  should 
have  slept  where  trees  shadow  and  flowers  garnish  the  sod. 


PAUL  POTTER. 


163 


An  artist  like  Potter  is  a  creator  of  a  style ;  his  genius  enables 
him  not  only  to  delineate  what  he  sees,  but  to  express  the 
hidden  sentiment  which  gives  the  charm  to  nature  itself.  He 
has  gone  below^  the  surface.  He  has  been  thus  contrasted  with 
painters  of  his  school  by  a  modern  critic  :  "  Others  have  painted 


Fig.  yb.— The  Great  Chapel,  A:nsteidam, 

cows,  oxen,  well-drawn  sheep,  all  well-coloured  and  painted. 
He  alone  has  seized  their  expression,  the  physiognomy  of  their 
inner  existence,  of  their  instinct.  We  admire  the  flocks  and 
herds  of  Berghem,  of  Van  der  Velde,  of  Karel  Dujardin  ;  we 
are  touched  by  those  of  Paul  Potter." 

It   should   ever   be   remembered    that   it   is   to   the   artists  of 


Holland  we  owe  a  relief  from  the  trammels  of  the  mere 
"academic"  school.  It  is  to  their  love  of  nature,  and  persevering 
study  of  her  beauties  that  we  are  indebted  for  a  purely  natural 
series  of  pictures,  which  rely  alone  for  immortality  on  their  true 
reflection  of  her  varied  beauties.  The  world  as  it  lay  around  us 
was  long  a  book  unstudied  in  the  flights  of  fancy  after  the  ideal. 
To  them  was  given  the  power  of  discovering  the  gold  that  is 
hidden  amid  the  dross  ;  the  poetry  that  is  in  humble  nature  ; 
the  sentiment  that  lurks  beneath  the  simplest  form.  They 
created  therefore  a  new  school  of  art,  and  a  school  which  might 
successfully  appeal  to  all,  by  the  simplicity  of  its  sphere  of 
action.  The  minute  traits  of  nature  in  their  pictures  resemble  the 
charming  traits  of  her  features  which  delight  us  in  the  poetry 
of  Shakspere  or  of  Burns.  As  the  "  lush  woodbine "  or  the 
"  mountain  daisy  "  could  gladden  the  hearts  of  these  noble  poets 
into  song,  so  the  changing  aspects  of  the  sky  could  elevate  into 
grandeur  the  simplest  elements  of  Rembrandt's  pictures,  and  the 
level  meads  and  happy  cattle  of  Paul  Potter  give  a  sentiment 
of  happiness  to  the  spectator,  like  that  felt  by  Goethe's  "Faust," 
when,  tired  of  all  the  artificial  glories  of  life,  he  feels  his  loftiest 
emotions  arise  from  the  contemplation  of  the  fertile  fields  and 
happy  peasantry  around  him.     Truly 

"One  touch  of  Nature  makes  tlie  wliolc  woiKl  kin," 

and  while  this  cosmopolitan  relationship  exists  the  Dutch  painters 
will  find  admirers. 


THE   DUTCH   GENRE-PAINTERS. 


''■^=-=^^' 


HE  Hollander,  as  represented  by  his  own  native  artists, 
is  as  distinct  from  the  rest  of  the  genus  homo  as  the 
style  adopted  by  the  hands  which  have  immortalised 
his  peculiarities.  He  is  known  everywhere — by  the  rich  connois- 
seur who  glories  in  the  possession  of  the  original  works  of 
Ostade,  Gerard  Douw,  Brauwer,  or  Jan  Steen  ;  and  by  the  poorer 
lover  of  art,  in  the  many  copies  produced  by  the  facile  hand  of 
the  engraver.  The  entire  truth  of  these  pictures,  and  their 
quaint  originality,  thus  enforce  full  claim  upon  attention,  even 
when  divested  of  the  charm  of  colour.  Well,  then,  may  the 
wealthy  collector  of  taste  rejoice  in  the  possession  of  genuine 
works  so  remarkable  for  both  qualities  as  are  the  pictures 
by  the  painters  of  _  the  Netherlands.  With  them  originated 
that  peculiar  choice  of  subject  from  ordinary  life  which  has 
received  the  soubriquet  of  genre-painting y  from  the  impossibility 
of  classing  it  with  the  grander  imaginings  of  the  Italian  school. 
Art  was  in  that  school  principally  devoted  to  the  sacred  service 
of  the  Church,  or  the  dignified  realisation  of  historic  scenes  ; 
it  therefore  always  possessed  a  certain  elevated  dignity  when 
it  approached  ordinary  life  in  portraiture  ;  but  in  no  instance  did 


1 68 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


it  free  itself  from  conventional  or  scholastic  education,  and  give 
itself  up   to   the   delineation   of  everyday   life  with   the   zest   of 


Jfi  aP. 


Jf.oji:^^ 


an  Ostade,  who  would  bestow  all  the  graces  of  art  on  an  old 
woman  threading  her  needle  ;  or  with  the  dashing  joviality  of 
Jan  Steen,  who  would  revel  in  a  tavern  scene  with  greater  gusto 


than  had  ever  been  seen   before  in  the  history  of  imitative  art. 

Their  success  as  a  school  produced  a  revolution  in  the  general 

canons    of  criticism,    and   the    ability  displayed   in   their  works 

asserted  a  position  for  a  new  body  of  painters  then  struggling 

into  notoriety,  who,  discarding  the  grandiose  (by  this  time  become 

a  little  absurd   from    the   scholastic   tendencies  of  its   devotees, 

who  too  frequently  indulged  in  mixing  the  real  and  the  fanciful, 

the  present  world  with  the  past,  history  and  mythology  in  unreal 

conjunction),  placed  their  starting-point  in  Nature  alone,  making 

her  works  the  limit  of  their  studies,  and  bringing  only  the  graces 

of  art  to  the  proper  adornment  of  what  she  placed  before  them — 

believing  no  created  thing  unworthy  their  earnest  attention,  and 

no  attention  ill-bestowed  that  could  present  it  to  their  fellow-men 

surrounded  by  all  the  artistic  graces  consistent  knowledge  could 

bring  to  bear  on  its  delineation. 

This   term  genre,   was   applied   somewhat   scornfully   by   the 

French  critics,  in  the  days  of  the  Grand  Monar que,  to  designate  a 

school  of  art  they  could  not  comprehend,  and  which  they  chose  to 

consider  as   out  of  the   pale  of  art-proper,  or  rather  the    art  of 

Versailles.     Louis  XIV.  would  never  admit  a  Dutch  picture  into 

his   galleries,   which   were,    however,    open   to   the   travesties   of 

Scripture   subjects    his    native    artists    painted    with    so    much 

complacency,  as  well  as  to  the  theatrical  flutterings  of  Bernini's 

sculpture.      The  grandiose  trifling,  which  then  passed  for  dignity, 

and   the   constrained   manners  which   made  up  an  etiquette  as 

wearisome  as  if  it  were  Chinese,  gave  no  scope  for  the  minds 

nurtured  in  formal  conventionalities  to  understand  the  charm  of 

z 


,7o  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


simplicity  or  Nature.  The  lowest  grade  of  a  true  art  takes 
higher  stand  than  the  art  produced  in  the  hotbeds  of  the  French 
court,  nurtured  under  unnatural  auspices  :  its  despised  products 
have  passed  away  like  all  other  "  whims  of  a  day,"  but  the 
greater  works  of  the  honest  Dutchmen  remain. 

Though   Ostade  is   inseparable  from  Dutch    art,  and   by  his 
genius  was  the  earliest  to  raise  it  to  renown,  he  was  not  a  native 
of  the  country.     He  was  born  at  Liibeck,  in  Germany,  in   1610. 
Hence  some  biographers  unhesitatingly  place  him  among  German 
artists  ;  but  he  was  unquestionably  German  only  by  the  accident 
of  birth  ;   for   abandoning   his  native  country  early  in  life,  the 
formation  of  his    mind  and  the  knowledge  of  art  he  possessed 
were  essentially  Dutch.     Like  many  a  foreigner  undergoing  the 
change  of  thought  and  habit  produced   by  a  residence  among 
strangers,  he  became  ultimately  more  national  than  the  native 
born,  and  earnestly  devoted  his  ability  to  the  delineation  of  the 
people  of  his  choice  with   a  zest  and  power  hitherto  unknown. 
Holland  did  not  in  his   time  want  for  wealthy  amateurs,  and, 
although  the  long  life  of  Ostade  was  spent  amid  political  turmoil, 
the  country  was  improving   in  wealth  and   importance  beneath 
the  rule  of  great  public  men.     It  is  to  Frank  Hals,  of  Haarlem, 
that  he  was  indebted  for  the  knowledge  he  obtained  of  the  mere 
manipulation  of  art.     Frank  was  a  free,  dashing  painter,  but  a 
perfect  tradesman  in  his  profession.      He  had  considerable  tact  in 
producing    saleable    pictures,   and    also    in    discovering    young 
and   needy  men  of  genius  who  would    aid  him   in   multiplying 
them  quickly.     His  wife,  as  avaricious  as  himself,  fostered  the 


THE  D  UTCH  GEN  RE- PA  INTERS.  1 7 1 


trading  spirit,  and  between  them  they  made  the  studio  a  mere  • 
shop,  and  the  pupils  mere  mechanics.  At  the  time  Ostade  was  in 
this  state  of  servitude  he  had  as  a  fellow-pupil  Adrian  Brauwer, 
with  whom  Hals  had  accidentally  become  acquainted,  and  whose 
ability  he  had  detected  in  the  humblest  employ.  His  mother 
was  a  poor  milliner  at  Haarlem,  and  he  used  to  sketch  on  paper 
for  her  the  flowers  and  other  ornaments  with  which  she 
embroidered  the  caps  and  collars  of  her  customers.  The  ability 
shown  by  the  boy  in  designing  these  decorations  induced  Hals  to 
examine  his  sketches,  and  ask  if  he  Avould  like  to  be  a  painter. 
The  boy  readily  replied  in  the  affirmative.  His  mother  was 
consulted  on  the  subject,  but  she  would  agree  only  on  condition 
that  Hals  should  entirely  provide  for  him  during  his  pupilage. 
He  consented ;  but,  with  wretched  parsimony,  when  he  found 
the  lad's  ability,  locked  him  in  a  wretched  garret,  and  made  him 
labour  continuously  with  hardly  sufficient  food,  without  money, 
and  without  relaxation.  His  fellow-students,  however,  behaved 
more  mercifully  by  him,  and  commissioned  him  to  make  them 
sketches  for  a  few  pence  each  in  such  few  moments  as  he  could 
snatch  for  that  purpose.  His  master  discovered  this,  and 
punished  the  poor  lad  by  making  him  work  harder  on  still  less 
food,  until,  persecuted  more  than  nature  could  bear,  he  broke 
from  his  prison  and  escaped.  With  the  childish  experiences  of  a 
boy,  he  made  provision  for  the  first  day  of  his  liberty  by 
purchasing  as  much  gingerbread  as  he  could  carry  in  his  pockets ; 
and  then  ensconcing  himself  beneath  the  carved  case  of  the 
famous  great  organ  in  the  principal  church  of  the  town,  leisurely 


lyi  HUMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD    WORKS  OF 


enjoyed  this  delicacy.  After  a  few  hours  his  situation  became 
irksome  ;  he  was  lonelier  than  in  Hals's  studio,  for  his  artistic 
implements  were  wanting ;  hunger,  too,  outmatched  his  ginger- 
bread, and  he  ventured  forth  ruefully  to  the  church  porch.  Here 
he  was  recognised  by  a  passer-by,  who  had  known  him  in  his 
master's  house  ;  from  the  poor  boy  he  learned  his  melancholy 
stor}--,  and  at  once  offered  to  be  the  mediator  between  them — 
succeeding  so  well  that  Hals  behaved  better  to  him  ;  for  he  was 
anxious  to  profit  by  his  genius,  and  had  sold  many  of  his  works 
at  high  prices,  as  the  production  of  a  foreign  artist  of  great 
merit. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Ostade  came  into  Hals's  studio  as 
a  pupil,  and  fully  appreciating  Brauwer's  ability,  and  indignant 
at  the  manner  in  which  he  was  treated,  urged  him  to  try  his 
fortune  on  his  own  account,  and  escape  to  Amsterdam,  which  was 
then  full  of  connoisseurs.  Brauwer  took  his  advice,  and  luckily 
went  on  his  arrival  to  an  inn  kept  by  one  Van  Sommeran, 
who  had  been  a  painter  in  early  life,  and  whose  son  still 
practised  the  art.  Here  he  was  well  received,  and  his  talent 
appreciated.  It  was  soon  discovered  by  an  amateur,  to  whom 
his  first  picture  was  shown,  that  he  was  the  "foreign  artist" 
whose  works  Hals  had  sold  so  highly.  He  was  well-paid  for  his 
work,  and  became,  from  the  depth  of  poverty  and  privation, 
free  and  comparatively  rich.  It  is  little  to  be  wondered  at 
that  he  revelled  in  the  change.  He  gave  himself  up  to  tavern 
life,  painted  sottish  scenes,  and  the  rude  brawls  they  engendered, 
and   spent  his   money   among    the  drunken    boors  he  painted — 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS.  173 


caring  little  to  work  before  it  became  absolutely  necessary  to 
obtain  money  for  his  creditors. 

Ostade,  possessed  of  true  German  phlegm,  went  on  a  steadier 
course.  Disgusted  with  his  master,  he  quietly  abandoned  him, 
but  settled  down  beside  him  in  the  city  of  Haarlem  to  obtain 
honestly  patronage  for  his  own  talents.  He  tried  them  in 
various  ways  ;  but  being  a  young  and  inexperienced  man,  he 
fledged  his  wings  in  imitative  art,  and  endeavoured  to  rival 
the  works  of  Rembrandt  and  Teniers.  He  did  not  succeed  ;  yet 
he  did  not  fully  feel  his  own  power  of  originality  until  his  old 
fellow-pupil  Brauwer  paid  him  a  friendly  visit,  and  urged  him  to 
throw  away  conventionalities,  and  depend  on  the  strength  of 
his  own  genius.  The  hearty  advice  of  the  grateful  young  painter, 
to  whom  he  had  once  tendered  advice  as  useful,  determined 
his  course,  and  he  struck  out  a  style  which  has  invested  his 
pictures  with  a  charm  all  his  own. 

Unlike  Brauwer,  Ostade  was  a  quiet,  industrious  man.  He 
married  the  daughter  of  Van  Goyen,  the  marine-painter,  and 
a  large  family  was  the  result  of  the  union,  for  whose  support 
he  laboured  unceasingly  until  the  necessity  for  improving  his 
monetary  affairs  induced  him  to  make  a  change,  and  he  decided 
on  returning  to  his  native  town  to  settle  there ;  but  he  got 
no  farther  on  his  road  than  Amsterdam,  where  he  found  so  much 
patronage,  that  about  the  year  1662  he  settled  there,  making  the 
neighbouring  villages  the  scenes  of  his  study  ;  and,  with  the 
characteristic  quietude  of  his  life,  having  found  out  his  forte, 
a  fair  field  for  study,  and  a  due  amount  of  patronage,  he  never 


17+  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


left  Amsterdam  ;  and  died  among  his  patrons  in  1685,  at  the  ripe 
age  of  seventy-five. 

In  his  pictures  we  see  the  best  transcript  of  Dutch  life  in  that 
era  :  the  happier  and  better  class  of  subject  was  chosen  for  his 
delineation.  The  tavern  brawls,  the  drunken  orgy,  or  the  coarse 
village  fete,  had  no  charms  for  his  pencil ;  but  the  rustic  at  home 
amid  his  family,  or  enjoying  himself  with  his  pipe,  or  listening 
over  the  trellis-hung  door  of  his  cottage  to  the  travelling 
minstrel's  simple  melody,  often  employed  his  pencil,  as  is  seen 
in  the  example  here  given  (Fig.  100).  He  never  caricatures  their 
simple  life ;  and,  while  displaying  it  in  the  most  complete 
homeliness  of  its  character,  never  offends  by  want  of  taste, 
however  low  the  grade  of  the  persons  he  may  represent.  Poor 
though  they  may  be,  they  are  seldom  repulsive,  as  in  many  of  the 
works  of  the  artists  of  the  Low  Countries ;  while  the  heartiness  of 
their  joy  as  they  look  on  their  children,  or  revel  in  the  simple 
pleasures  they  can  obtain,  gives  them  an  interest  and  a  claim  on 
attention  that  pure  honesty  always  may  command.  They  show 
how  much  poetry  there  is  in  common  things,  and  how  much  lurks 
beneath 

"  Tlic  .slioit  ami  simple  annals  of  the  jiodi  ." 

The  life  of  Brauwer  possesses  great  stirring  interest  ;  indeed, 
it  may  be  said  to  be  the  most  eventful  career  led  by  any  Dutch 
painter.  They  generally  passed  through  their  course  of  life 
so  quietly  and  simply,  so  industriously  and  prosperously,  that 
we  know  littl<'  more  of  them  than  that  they  lived,  painted, 
and   died.      The   adventurous  spirit  of  Brauwer,  and  the  erratic 


176 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


nature  of  his  tastes,  led  him  into  a  more  chequered  path. 
Cradled  in  poverty,  a  slave  to  a  bad  master,  as  he  emerged 
to  manhood  he  ran  a  reckless  course,  when  liberty  and  money 
came  into  his  possession.  He  must  have  been  occasionally  taken 
for  a  madman  by  his  stolid  countrymen.     Many  are  the  quaint 


y\'^.  loi. — The  Citadel  of  Antwxip  in  1003. 

stories  told  of  the  painter — his  recklessness  and  his  buffooneries, 
which  must  have  frequently  set  the  tavern  in  a  roar.  lie  had 
much  caustic  humour  also  ;  and  it  is  narrated  of  him,  that  being 
invited  to  a  wedding,  and  feeling  it  was  only  because  he  had 
discarded  the  slatternly  clothes  he  usually  wore,  and  donned 
a  suit  of  velvet,  he  soaked  his  new  coat  in  the  richest  sauces 
on  the  table,  declaring  that  the  s^'-ood  cheer  could  only  be  properly 
bestowed  on  the  thing  invited  ;  and  then  casting  it  on  the  fire,  he 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS.  177 


coolly  walked  back  to  his  old  tavern  companions.  Immersed  in 
his  studies  of  low  life,  and  enjoying  only  such  scenes  as  he  loved 
to  paint,  he  never  sought  to  amass  money  ;  and  it  is  recorded 
of  him,  that  on  one  occasion,  when  a  considerable  sum  was  paid 
him,  he  abandoned  his  pencil  and  home  for  nine  days,  until 
he  had  spent  it  all,  returning  penniless,  and  praising  heaven  that 
he  had  at  last  got  rid  of  it. 

This  reckless  life  naturally  produced  the  usual  bad  results, 
even  to  a  man  of  so  few  wants  as  Brauwer.  His  debts  accumu- 
lated, and  at  last  were  so  portentous  that  he  saw  no  escape 
from  his  liabilities  but  flight.  He  left  Amsterdam,  and  hurried  to 
Antwerp  ;  but  when  he  reached  that  city  he  was  at  once  arrested 
by  the  soldiery,  for  the  thoughtless  painter  had  no  passport,  and 
the  Hollanders  were  waging  fierce  war  against  the  Spaniards, 
who  claimed  to  be  their  governors,  and  in  whose  hands  Antwerp 
was  held.  He  was  at  once  marched  to  the  citadel*  (Fig.  101)  as  a 
Dutch  spy,  and  in  it  encountered  the  Duke  d'Aremberg,  who 
was  imprisoned  there  by  order  of  the  Spanish  king,  and  whom 
the  painter  imagined  to  be  the  governor  of  the  fortress.  In 
profound  tribulation  Brauwer  told  his  simple  tale,  and  assured 
him  he  was  only  a  poor  painter.     To  test  his  story,  the  duke 


*  Our  engraving  exhibits  the  aspect  of  the  citadel  of  Antwerp  at  the  time  when  the 
painter  was  prisoner  there  ;  it  is  now  a  much  stronger  position.  In  his  time  it  was  fed  by  a 
canal  connected  with  the  Scheldt,  and  the  ramparts  economically  served  the  purpose  of 
foundations  for  windmills  to  grind  the  com  of  the  garrison.  The  necessary  houses  for  troops 
are  arranged  with  Dutch  formality  ;  a  chapel  is  also  contained  within  its  bounds,  and  an 
open  space  for  the  exercise  of  the  soldiery.  It  was  constructed  by  the  celebrated  engineer, 
Pacciotti,  that  the  cruel  Duke  of  Alva  might  overawe  the  men  of  Antwerp. 

A  A 


178  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WURKS  OF 

good-naturedly  sent  a  messenger  to  Rubens,  then  residing  close 
by,  and  obtained  from  him  canvas  and  colours  for  Brauwer, 
who  at  once  set  to  work,  and  painted  a  group  of  soldiers  who 
were  engaged  beneath  his  prison  window  in  a  game  of  cards. 
When  it  was  finished  it  was  shown  to  Rubens,  who  at  once 
declared  it  to  be  a  work  of  Brauwer's.  That  really  great  and 
generous  man  went  -immediately  to  the  governor,  begged  for  the 
liberty  of  his  fellow-artist,  and  ultimately  obtained  it  on 
becoming  personally  answerable  for  his  conduct.  He  did  not 
rest  here ;  but  took  Brauwer  to  his  own  princely  mansion  in 
Antwerp,  where  he  gave  him  a  chamber  for  his  exclusive  use, 
clothed  him  anew,  and  assigned  him  a  place  at  his  table. 

Fortune  now  seemed  to  have  done  her  best  for  Brauwer, 
but  he  was  not  the  man  to  value  her  smiles.  His  short  residence 
in  the  house  of  the  courtly  Rubens,  who  lived  more  like  a  prince 
than  a  painter,  instead  of  elevating  only  depressed  a  man  whose 
chief  joy  centred  in  tavern  life.  Like  old  Walter  Llapes,  his 
aspiration  was — 

"In  a  tavern  to  be  till  the  day  of  his  death, 
Witii  no  stint  tq  the  full-flowinfj  bowl, 
That  angels  might  sing,  as  he  drew  his  last  breath, 
'  Rest  and  peace  be  to  this  thirsty  soul.'  "• 


*  Walter  Mapes  flourished  in  the  twelfth  century  as  Archdeacon  of  Oxford.  This 
thirsty  cliurchman  thus  expressed  himself  in  the  fiiht  stanza  of  his  celebrated  convivial  song, 
with  a  strength  above  our  translation — 

"  Milii  est  propositum  in  tabema  mnri, 
Vinum  sit  apposilum  niorientis  ori, 
Ut  dicunt,  cum  venerint  angelorum  chori, 
'  Dcu8  sit  propitius  huic  j)otatori.'  " 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS. 


M9 


He  made  a  precipitate  retreat  from  Rubens'  house  to  the 
beershops,  selling  his  clothes  for  drink.  Becoming  acquainted 
with  a  boon-companion,  one  Joseph  van  Craesbeck,  a  baker, 
he  took  the  offer  he  gave  the  painter  to  board  and  lodge  him 
on  condition  that  he  gave  him  lessons  in  art.  Master  and  pupil 
were  as  constantly  carousing  as  painting,  until  at  last  all  things 


Fig.  102. — Gate  of  St.  Julian's  Hospital,  Antwerp. 

went  so  ill  with  them  that  flight  was  again  necessary,  and  both 
started  for  Paris.  Brauwer,  however,  found  the  life  of  the 
Parisian  unlike  the  beer-drinking  of  Belgium  and  Holland,  and 
longed  to  return.  But  he  got  no  farther  on  his  road  back  than 
Antwerp,  where  he  arrived,  suffering  from  disease,  exhaustion, 
and  neglect.     As  a  pauper  he  was   received  in  the  old   public 


hospital  of  the  city  (Fig.  102),  and  there  died  wretchedly,  in  the 
year  1660.*  His  body,  wrapped  in  the  straw  pallet  upon  which 
he  died,  was  inhumed  in  the  burial-ground  devoted  to  the 
plague-stricken ;  but  his  old  friend  Rubens,  hearing  of  this,  and 
much  moved  at  the  untimely  end  of  so  true  a  genius  and  so 
great  an  artist,  had  him  re-buried  at  his  own  cost,  with  all 
honour,  in  one  of  the  principal  churches  of  the  city,  and  deter- 
mined to  erect  a  monument  to  his  memory.  He  perfected  his 
design,  but  was  himself  numbered  among  the  dead  ere  he  could 
have  it  executed. 

In  Gerard  Douw  we  find  the  quietude  of  an  Ostade. 
Throughout  a  long  life  he  resided  at  Leyden  (Fig.  103),  and 
devoted  his  whole  thought  to  his  art.  Painstaking  in  a  most 
extraordinary  degree,  he  laboured  unremittingly  on  his  pictures ; 
and  Sandraat,  in  recording  a  visit  he  paid  him  in  company  with 
Bamboccio,  narrates,  that  Douw  declared  he  should  bestow  three 
days  more  in  finishing  a  broom  in  one  corner  of  the  picture, 
which  had  already  attracted  the  attention  of  both  by  its  laborious 
manipulation.  In  all  his  works  he  indulged  the  same  love  of 
minute  finish  ;  and  he  was  as  careful  of  the  colours  he  used, 
grinding  them  himself,  and  treading  his  studio  on  tiptoe,  lest 
he  should  raise  dust  on  his  palette  to  injure  their  brilliancy.  The 
richness  and  purity  of  his  colouring  are  still  unrivalled ;  and 
though  with  some  painters  such  extreme  love  of  minute  finish 

•  Tlie  pulilic  Ii()s|iital  of  Antwerp  is  appropriately  named  after  St.  Julian,  that  saint 
being  the  patron  of  travellers.  It  is  still  a  lar^e  and  useful  establishment,  but  preserves  no 
traces  of  its  antique  features  except  the  old  Gothic  doorway  given  above. 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS. 


might  sink  their  works  to  tameness,  those  of  Douw  have  a  vigour 
and  an  expression  never  excelled  by  any  artist  of  his  age.  His 
pictures  of  Dutch  life  are  perfect.  "  The  Village  School,"  in  the 
Museum  of  Amsterdam,  is  often  quoted  for  its  peculiar  power, 
and  the  difficulty  the  artist  created  for  himself  only  to  conquer  it. 


Fig.  103. — Leyden. 

It  represents  a  large  room  filled  with  figures,  and  lighted  by  four 
candles  at  different  parts  of  the  composition.  But  a  finer,  if 
not  the  finest  work  by  Douw,  is  the  picture  in  the  Louvre,  known 
as  "La  Femme  Hydropique,"  which  displays  his  wonderful 
colour,  drawing,  composition,  and  knowledge  of  effect,  in  the 
most  satisfactory  manner.  >$^^^^ •^^'^-^0§' 


i^imX^ 


In  Gerard  Douw's  works  we  view  the  superior  life  of  the 
Dutch.  He  has  no  love  for  the  delineation  of  vulgar  or  coarse 
scenes,  such  as  delighted  too  many  of  his  compeers,  and  gave  too 
much  weight  to  critical  objections  to  their  works  in  general. 
Refined  minds,  used  to  the  purities  and  high  resolves  of  the 
Italian  schools,  received  a  repulsive  shock  from  the  scenes  of 
Brauwer  and  Jan  Steen,  and  could  scarcely  tolerate  the  simple 
truth  of  Teniers,  or  the  grand  imaginings  of  Rubens,  accom- 
panied by  the  coarseness  which  seemed  almost  inseparable  from 
the  governing  ideas  of  these  masters.  Ostade,  on  the  contrary, 
elevates  all  he  touches  ;  his  youthful  figures  breathe  health  and 
win  affection ;  his  men  and  women  are  not  the  tanned  and 
wrinkled  creatures  repulsive  to  eye  and  mind,  but  rather  lovable 
from  the  deeply-traced  furrows  with  which  sixty  winters  of  genial 
thought  have  seamed  their  faces — '*  frosty "  the  end  of  their 
life  scarcely  seems,  it  is  so  "kindly"  withal;  and  if  we  would 
pleasantly  dream  over  the  old  time  in  Holland,  and  live  in 
imagination  among  the  people  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we 
must  go  to  the  works  of  Ostade  and  Douw  (Fig.  104), 

It  is  by  studying  the  paintings  of  Jan  Steen  we  become  most 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  everyday  life  of  the  Dutch.  Like 
our  own  Hogarth,  he  had  the  keenest  sense  of  humour  ;  and,  like 
him,  he  has  been  too  frequently  stigmatised  as  a  slovenly  painter, 
or  as  a  caricaturist.  Both  artists  handled  their  pencils  freely 
enough,  but  they  only  did  as  much  by  one  touch  as  less 
impressible  minds  could  do  by  a  dozen  ;  while  their  equally 
powerful   perception   of  humorous  character  \od    them  to  fix  its 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS. 


183 


broadest  features  on  their  canvas.  Careful  execution,  free  con- 
ception, vivid  and  powerful  colour,  and  vigorous  chiaro-osctiro, 
are  declared  by  Dr.  Waagen  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  Jan 


Fig.  104.— Hall  of  an  Old  House,  Leyden. 

Steen.  Dr.  Kiigler  says,  "They  imply  a  clear  and  cheerful  view 
of  common  life,  treated  with  a  careless  humour,  and  accompanied 
by   great   force   and   variety   of    individual   expression,    such   as 


1 84  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND    WORKS  OF 


evinces  the  sharpest  observation.  He  is  almost  the  only  artist  of 
the  Netherlands  who  has  thus,  with  true  genius,  brought  into  full 
play  all  those  elements  of  comedy.  His  technical  execution  suits 
his  design ;  it  is  carefully  finished,  and,  notwithstanding  the 
closest  attention  to  minute  details,  is  as  firm  and  correct  as  it  is 
free  and  light."  In  the  landscape  backgrounds  of  some  of  his 
pictures — such  as  "The  Game  of  Skittles,"  in  Lord  Ashburton's 
gallery — we  find  qualities  which  the  late  J.  W.  W.  Turner 
declared  "  worthy  of  Cuyp."  Some  of  his  scenes  of  better-class 
life — such  as  that  known  as  "The  Parrot,"  in  the  gallery  at 
Amsterdam — are  full  of  grace  and  careful  manipulation.  It  is, 
however,  chiefly  by  such  pictures  as  his  "  Feast  of  St.  Nicholas," 
in  the  same  collection,  that  he  is  best  known ;  here  his  humour 
and  expression  are  so  great,  that  a  French  critic  says  you  seem  to 
know  the  thoughts  of  each  person  in  the  picture.  In  Mr. 
Baring's  gallery  there  is  a  marvellous  instance  of  his  power — 
an  old  woman  looking  up  with  a  grotesque  earnestness  into  a 
doctor's  face,  who  has  come  to  attend  her  daughter.  The  lifelike 
energy  and  vivid  expression  of  fleeting  humour  in  each  feature 
are  perfectly  wonderful.  It  is  at  once  simply  and  boldly  painted, 
as  if  the  expression  had  been  caught  by  photography. 

As  reckless  as  Brauwer,  Steen  lived  a  happier  life  :  he  was 
idle,  gay,  and  thoughtless,  but  not  vicious.  Always  poor,  and 
careless  of  money  when  he  had  it,  he  rattled  through  life,  taking 
its  rough  lessons  with  perfect  good  humour,  and  never  caring  for 
the  morrow.  He  was  born  at  Leyden,  in  1636,  and  died  there  in 
1689.      He  married  early,  and  had  several  children.     His  wife, 


like  himself,  was  careless  and  equally  improvident ;  she  appears 
to   have   been  quite  as   neglectful  of  all   household   duties   and 
provisions   for   the  future  as  her  husband.     If  what  is  affirmed 
of   some   of  his   paintings   be   true,   they   represent    her    in    no 
creditable  state  of  ebriety,  and  her  whole  household  in  confusion. 
Unluckily,  they  both  started  in  life  in  a  brewery  at  Delft,  which 
was  furnished  for  them  by  the  artist's  father,  who  was  in  that 
trade.      The  young  couple,  however,  kept  their  taps  constantly 
running    for    their    own    use    and    that    of   their    friends,   until 
bankruptcy  closed  the  doors,  and  Steen  took  up  art  for  a  fresh 
living.     The  life  of  a  tavern-keeper  had,  however,  too  great   a 
charm  for  Jan  to  relinquish  readily,  and  he  came  back  to  Leyden 
on   the  death  of  his   father,   and  opened  house  as  one  of  that 
fraternity.      Hither   soon   came  all   the  topers  of  the  town,  and 
many  a  careless  artist  to  boot.     Among  them  were  IMieris  and 
Lievens  ;    the  figure  of  Peace  extending  her  olive  branch,  which 
Jan    painted   for   his    sign,  was   indicative   of  the    little   trouble 
the   painter-publican    chose   to  give  his  customers.      Hence  the 
topers  never  troubled  themselves  to  pay,  and  Jan,  faithful  to  his 
sign,  gave  them  no  uneasiness  about  it,  until  again  compelled 
to  close  his  too  friendly  doors  through  debt.     His  careless  wife 
died  soon  after ;  and  his  neglected  children  frequently  became  the 
models    for   many   of    his    pictures.      He   contracted    a    second 
marriage  with  a  woman  who  sold  sheep's  heads  and  "trotters" 
in  the  butcher's  market ;    and  he  painted,  and  drank,  and  took 
the  world  easy  until  his  death,  when  he  left  his  wife  with  nine 
children,  one  of  whom  took  to  sculpture  as  a  profession. 

B   B 


1 86  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND    WORKS  OF 


In  spite  of  his  culpable  carelessness,  and  love  of  slatternly 
ease  and  tap-room  life,  he  had  superior  friends.  The  gentlemanly 
Karel  du  Moor  painted  his  humble  second  wife's  portrait  to 
gratify  them  both ;  Gabriel  Metzu,  the  quiet  and  elegant 
delineator  of  Dutch  aristocratic  life,  was  also  his  friend,  and 
sat  with  his  wife  to  Jan  for  their  portraits  ;  and  Mieris,  we  have 
already  noted,  was  his  boon-companion.  The  elegance  of  the 
pictures  by  this  latter  artist,  who  always  chose  the  higher  life  of 
Holland,  like  his  fellow-artist,  Metzu,  for  the  subjects  of  his 
pencil,  and  delineated  such  scenes  so  admirably,  would  scarcely 
have  led  to  the  conclusion  that  he  could  have  found  pleasure 
in  Jan's  tavern  at  Leyden.  But  the  fact  is  that  Jan  was  a  sound 
artist,  and  could  mix  up  agreeable  knowledge  with  his  farcical 
jovialities.  The  orgies  of  Jan's  tavern  proved  so  fascinating, 
that  it  is  recorded  Mieris  was  nearly  drowned  one  night  in  a 
dyke  as  he  returned  home  in  one  of  what  Burns  calls  "  The 
wee  short  hours  ayont  the  twal,"  rather  the  worse  for  liquor. 
The  painter  was  fished  out  by  a  cobbler,  who,  astonished  at 
his  velvet  dress  and  gold  buttons,  was  still  more  surprised  to  find 
the  saved  man  only  a  poor  painter ;  but  most  astonished  of 
all  when  the  artist,  in  his  gratitude,  made  him  a  present  of  one  of 
his  pictures,  for  which  he  obtained  eight  hundred  florins. 

It  is  in  the  works  of  Jan  Stecn  that  we  more  particularly 
see  the  ordinary  life  of  the  Dutch  people  depicted.  Their 
manners  and  customs  may  be  there  truly  studied.  **  The  Feast 
of  St.  Nicholas,"  at  the  museum  at  Amsterdam,  and  "  The  Mar- 
riage," in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Baring,  illustrate  our  meaning. 


Stolid  and  unchanging  as  Dutchmen  appear  to  be,  two 
centuries  have  not  passed  over  their  country  without  producing 
very  considerable  changes  in  it.  While  the  tourist  will  note, 
as  we  have  already  done,  much  that  reminds  him  of  his  first 
impressions  of  Dutch  life  obtained  from  Dutch  pictures,  there  is 
also  much  that  has  passed  away  from  the  land  for  ever,  and 
which  only  exists  in  such  representations.  You  still  observe  the 
ivy-grown  farm-house,  with  its  "  thick-pleached  orchard,"  and  its 
quaint  walls  and  gates ;  but  you  see  no  longer  the  loosely-dressed 
boor,  with  his  wide  Spanish  doublet  and  balloon-breeches. 
Paris  has  invaded  Holland,  and  the  Magazin  des  Modes  has 
had  power  enough  to  transform  a  Dutchman  into  a  comparatively 
fashionable  being.  Village  life  now  is  not  the  village  life  of 
Ostade  and  Gerard  Douw — it  is  less  picturesque  and  less 
slatternly ;  it  displays  more  of  Dutch  formality  than  we  see 
in  their  w^orks,  but  it  has  more  of  comfort  and  respectability. 
It  is  in  the  quiet  village  inns  that  are  still  scattered  over  the  land 
we  may  now  detect  the  last  relics  of  old  manners.  As  you 
approach  the  principal  towns  you  see  many  of  these  welcome 
hostelries,  the  doors  bowered  over  with  grape  vines,  and  looking 
worthy  the  pencil  of  an  Ostade,  while  the  long  shed  beside  their 
trim  gardens  may,  mentally,  be  easily  peopled  by  the  skittle  and 
tric-trac  players  of  Teniers.  In  the  open  space  before  the  house 
a  tall  pole,  some  thirty  feet  in  height,  is  frequently  to  be 
observed ;  it  is  crowned  on  gala  days  with  a  sort  of  weathercock, 
and  the  wooden  bars,  placed  at  some  distance  around  it,  are 
the  marks  where  the  men  stand  to  shoot  at  it.      It  is  the  old 


188  HOMES,  HAUNTS,   AXD    WORKS  OF 

papcguay,  or  fictitious  parrot,  which  exercised  the  ability  of  the 
young  villagers  at  a  time  when  archery  was  generally  enforced  as 
a  practice.  In  our  country  the  custom  was  also  adopted,  and 
shooting  at  the  popinjay  was  as  usual  in  an  English  village 
of  the  time  of  Elizabeth  as  it  was  among  the  Dutch,  who  still 
preserve  their  village  life  more  unchanged  than  we  do.  Popular 
customs  are  at  all  times  the  last  to  succumb  to  fashion  ;  and 
while  large  towns  vary  continually,  and  take  the  most  recent  tone 
of  manners,  the  village  goes  on  in  the  present  generation  pretty 
much  as  it  did  in  the  last.  Novelties  are  not  so  welcome  there, 
and  are  looked  upon  generally  with  a  characteristic  distrust. 

But  while  we  speak  of  changes  in  Holland  since  the  days  of 
the  old  painters  who  have  made  its  past  age  famous,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  they  are  the  slow  results  of  nearly  two 
centuries,  and  after  all  by  no  means  make  so  great  a  change 
during  that  long  period  as  has  been  effected  elsewhere.  Even  in 
the  towns  many  old  customs  are  retained  that  have  been  in  use 
time-out-of-mind,  and  which  have  been  immortalised  in  some 
picture  of  one  or  other  of  the  old  masters  of  Holland.  We  have 
already  noted  the  humorous  works  of  Jan  Steen  as  the  truest 
transcripts  of  the  manners  which  he  saw  around  him.  One 
of  them  depicts  a  fellow  dancing  joyously  into  a  room  with  a 
fresh  herring  in  liis  hand,  exultingly  upheld  by  the  tail.  His 
antics  are  received  with  a  broad  smile  from  all  present.  It  would 
be  difficult  for  an  ordinary  spectator  to  understand  all  this,  did 
he  not  know  that  a  fresh  herring  is  considered  by  the  Dutch 
a  panacea  for  every  complaint ;  and  their  arrival  on  their  shores 


is  hailed  with  so  much  joy,  that  the  first  who  hears  the  news 
generally  makes  it  publicly  known  by  hanging  at  his  door  a 
frame,  decorated  with  evergreen  flowers  and  coloured  paper, 
in  honour  of  the  joyful  event  (Fig.  105).  This  silent  mode  of 
communicating  intelligence  is  used  on  other  occasions.  Thus, 
at  Haarlem,  it  is  a  custom  on  the  birth  of  a  child  to  affix  to 
the   principal   door,    to    denote    the    event,  a   pincushion,    which 


Fig.  105. — The  Ilcning  Sign. 


is  constructed  of  red  silk,  covered  with  lace,  and  deeply  fringed. 
The  sex  of  the  child  is  defined  by  a  small  piece  of  white  paper 
placed  between  the  lace  and  cushion  if  it  is  a  girl,  but  the 
absence  of  all  mark  denotes  a  boy  (Fig.  106).  This  custom  has 
other  and  solid  advantages;  it  not  only  prevents  intrusive 
curiosity,  but  for  a  certain  period  the  house  is  protected  from 
actions  for  debt— no  bailiffs  dare  molest  it,  no  soldiers  can  be 


1 90 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


billeted  on  it,  and  when  troops  march  past  the  drums  invariably 
cease  to  beat.* 

One  Dutch  town  is  so  much  like  another  that  but  for  a  few 
remnants  of  an  ancient  kind  they  would  become  monotonous 
to  the  stranger.  Some  of  these  relics  are  extremely  picturesque  ; 
and  at  Haarlem  the  old  Butchery  is  so  costly  and  beautiful 
a  building,  with  its  varied  walls  of  white  stone  and  red  brick,  and 
its  richly-carved  decorations,  as  to  make  it 
one  of  the  principal  features  of  the  town.  We 
must,  however,  go  back  to  old  engravings  if 
w^e  would  see  the  very  streets  in  which  the 
men  of  the  days  of  Douw  and  Mieris  walked. 
Fortunately,  their  features  have  been  pre- 
served in  old  engravings  scattered  through 
books  sometimes  devoted  to  subjects  of  an- 
other kind.  Our  view  of  the  stadtholder's 
house  at  Haarlem  (Fig.  107),  and  the  sur- 
rounding buildings,  is  of  this  nature  ;  and  is 
copied  from  La  Serre's  very  curious  volume 
descriptive  of  the  reception  given  to  the  queen-mother.  Queen 
Catherine  de  Medici,  by  the  principal  Dutch  towns,  in  the  year 
1635,  w^hen  she  paid  a  visit  to  the  Low  Countries  on  her  way  to 
her  daughter  Henrietta-lNIaria,  the  queen  of  Charles  L,  performing 


Mg.  106.— The  Birth- 
Token. 


♦  The  custom  is  traditionally  reported  to  have  originated  owing  to  the  death  of  a 
merchant's  wife,  whose  house  had  bc-jn  entered  noisily  and  rudely  by  olhccrs,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  his  bankiiiplcy,  during  licr  confnienicnt. 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS. 


iql 


the  journey  from   Bar-le-Duc  to   Gorcum,  and  crossing  the  sea 
from  thence  to  Harwich. 

Some  of  the  Dutch  towns  are  less  altered  in  their  general 
features  than  might  have  been  imagined,  and  this  is  strikingly 
the  case  with  the  chief  of  them,  Amsterdam.     The  peculiar  nature 


Fig.  107. — The  Stadtholder's  House,  Haarlem,  1O35. 


of  its  foundations,  and  the  difficulty  of  tampering  with  its 
necessary  arrangements,  may  have  induced  this.  The  visitor  at 
the  present  time  looking  at  it  across  from  Waterland,  will  see  a 
city  in  no  degree  changed  in  its  broad  aspect  from  the  days  of 
Rembrandt.     When    Catherine    de    Medici    made   her   "happy 


iq2 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


entry"  into  that  city,  in  1C35,  its  features  from  this  point 
were  delineated  by  De  Vlieger,  and  have  been  copied  in  our  cut 
(Fig.  108).  It  might  have  been  sketched  yesterday,  so  completely 
does  it  give  the  striking  characteristics  of  this  old  city  of  the  sea. 

The  Hague,  as  it  appeared  during  the  palmy  era  of  Dutch 
art,  is  seen  in  another  of  our  cuts,  and  that  being  the  "  fashion- 
able "   locality   has   changed    most ;    indeed,    there   has   been    a 


I'iy.  108. — Amsterdam,  1635. 

visible  desire  to  make  it  accord  to  the  refinements  and  tastes 
of  modern  high  life,  as  much  as  can  be  consistent  with  national 
character  (Fig.  109).  It  is  the  residence  of  the  court,  and  is 
to  Amsterdam  what  the  Versailles  of  the  days  of  Louis  XIV. 
was  to  Paris.  There  is  one  characteristic  feature  of  the  Hague 
which  has  remained  unchanged,  —  and  that  is  the  favourite 
promenade  on  the  road  to  Scheveningen,  or  Scheveling,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called.     It   is  an    avenue  of  oaks  and   limes,   nearly 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS. 


'93 


three  miles  in  length,  perfectly  straight,  and  bounded  by  the 
little  steeple  of  the  parish  church  of  Scheveningen  at  the  farther 
end,  which  may  be  seen  from  the  Hague.  The  trees  are  here 
allowed  to  grow  in  full  luxuriance,  and  shadow  the  road,  which  is 
never  lonely — for  the  Hague  is  the  most  pleasant  and  healthy 


Fig.  109.— The  Hai^uc,  1635. 

of  Dutch  towns,  and  the  favourite  resort  of  the  Hollander. 
The  refreshing  sea-breeze  may  always  be  inhaled  here;  hence 
pedestrians  and  equestrians  choose  this  road,  and  the  idle  find 
constant  amusement  in  sitting  under  the  trees  and  watching 
the  passers-by.  Scheveningen  is  a  little  fishing  village  on 
the  sea-shore,  occupied  by  about  three  hundred  fishermen,  and 

c  c 


'9+ 


HOMES,   HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


their  carts  may  be  met  on  this  road  in  the  morning,  drawn  by 
strong  dogs,  conveying  fish  to  the  Hague  (Fig.  i  lo).  The  situation 
of  the  village  itself  is  particularly  dreary  ;  the  sea-margin  is  a 
sandy   desert,   planted   here    and   there  with    rushes   to   prevent 


Fig.  no. — Tlic  Koail  to  Schcvoningcn. 

the  sand  from  blowing  over-land  in  stormy  weather.  It  is  of 
interest  in  English  history  as  the  place  from  whence  King 
Charles  II.  embarked  to  resume  the  sovereignty  of  England,*  and 
as  the  birth-place  of  William  III. 


•  There  is  a  very  interesting  and  curious  picture,  representing  this  event  with  tnio  Diitcli 
minuteness,  in  the  Gallery  at  Hampton  Court. 


The  pictures  of  IMetzu,  Mieris,  and  Terburg  exhibit  the 
highest  tone  of  Dutch  society, — the  wealth  and  comfort  of  their 
indoor  life,  the  richness  of  their  apparel,  the  simple  dignity 
of  their  bearing.  A  Dutchman  may  feel  proud  of  the  ancestry 
delineated  by  his  native  painters,  of  the  patriots  who  fought  and 
bled  more  determinedly  for  their  liberties  than  the  men  of  any 
other  nation  have  been  called  upon  to  do.  In  the  really  grand 
picture  at  Amsterdam,  representing  the  city-guard  met  to 
celebrate  the  important  treaty  of  Miinster,  which  gave  inde- 
pendence to  the  Dutch  after  long  years  of  Spanish  treachery  and 
cruelty,  the  painter  has  truthfully  portrayed  men,  certainly 
without  ideal  gracefulness,  but  with  innate  manly  dignity  which 
gives  a  lifelike  charm  to  the  picture,  and  has  obtained  for 
Van  der  Heist  the  highest  position  in  this  branch  of  art.*  To  a 
morally-balanced  mind  the  home-scenes  of  such  painters  are 
as  capable  of  imparting  pleasure  as  the  more  ambitious  attempts 
of  the  heroic  school,  inasmuch  as  they  generally  steer  clear  of 
anachronisms  and  false  sentiment.  Art  is  catholic  in  its  views, 
and  should  be  received  on  broad  principles  ;  it  would  be  unfair  to 
disregard   a   Greek   cameo   because   it   does   not   overpower   the 


*  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  has  given  his  opinion  of  lliis  noble  picture  in  the  strongest 
manner;  he  says  it  is  "  perhaps  the  finest  picture  of  portraits  in  the  world,  comprehending 
more  of  those  qualities  which  make  a  perfect  portrait  than  any  other  I  have  ever  seen." 
Kiigler  also  testifies  to  its  truth,  boldness,  and  brilliancy.  It  has  been  recently  veiy 
carefully  and  beautifully  engraved,  but  we  lose  in  the  engraving  the  admirable  colouring 
which  gives  so  great  a  charm  to  the  noble  original,  malcing  it  rival  in  attractiveness  the 
"  Night  Guard  "  of  Rembrandt,  which  hangs  opposite  to  it  in  tlie  Galleiy  of  the  Hague. 
Two  such  pictures  may  be  sought  in  vain  elsewhere. 


eye  like  a  bas-relief  by  Phidias — particularly  as  a  study  of  both 
would  assure  us  that  the  same  great  principles  governed  the  mind 
which  produced  each.  The  minute  finish  which  some  find 
objectionable  in  such  works  as  those  of  Douw  and  Ostade, 
may  be  excused  as  necessary  results  from  minds  schooled  to 
patient  labour,  but  they  never  forgot  the  true  fundamental 
principles  of  art ;  for  however  laboured  their  works  appear, 
their  design  and  general  arrangement  of  colour  are  broad 
and  bold.  As  compositions  they  may  be  viewed  at  any 
distance  satisfactorily,  but  they  will  also  reward  the  nearest 
scrutiny. 

The  painters  just  named  were  particularly  happy  in  the 
delineation  of  what  are  sometimes  termed  ''  conversation-pieces  " 
— an  old-fashioned  designation  which  is  singularly  and  usefully 
characteristic  of  such  designs.  In  them  we  see  a  sort  of 
photographed  view  of  old  Dutch  manners.  The  wealth  of 
Holland  peeps  forth  in  every  one  of  them.  The  costly  silks, 
velvets,  and  furs  of  the  ladies,  are  rivalled  by  the  velvets, 
feathers,  and  gold  lace  of  their  gallants.  The  ebony  cabinets, 
carved  chairs,  and  massive  furniture,  which  generally  fill  the 
rooms  delineated,  display  the  wealth  and  love  of  comfort  which 
reigned  paramount  in  the  dwellings  of  the  rich  merchants  of  the 
Low  Countries.  The  very  ponderosity  of  the  various  articles  are 
characteristic ;  so  also  are  the  Indian  jars  and  carpets,  the 
parrots  and  monkeys,  whicli  hint  very  plainly  the  far-sighted 
spirit  of  trading  enterprise  that  gave  the  Dutch  nation  a  well- 
deserved  pre-eminence  in  the  seventeenth  century.     The  traveller 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS.  197 

may  yet  trace  in  Holland  the  old  love  for  the  products  of  Eastern 
taste  and  skill,  and  the  porcelain  of  China  and  Japan  is  still 
the  ordinary  ware  of  the  Dutchman ;  he  also  revels  in  a 
Chinese  summer-house,  and  delights  in  a  monkey  or  an  aviary 
of  birds,  whose  notes  seem  but  the  outpourings  of  a  sad 
reminiscence  of  a  sunny  land  far  away,  to  which  they  will  never 
return. 

Imitative  aft  can  never  be  carried  further  than  it  was  by 
Terburg  in  his  famous  picture  known  as  "The  Satin  Gown," 
a  picture  which  has  been  made  more  known  by  the  notice  it 
has  received  by  Goethe  in  his  *' Wahlverwandschaften."  He 
describes  it  as  representing  a  noble,  knightly-looking  man,  who 
sits  with  one  leg  over  the  other  addressing  himself  to  the 
conscience  of  his  daughter,  who  stands  before  him.  "She  is  a 
majestic  figure,  in  a  full  and  flowing  dress  of  white  satin ;  her 
back  only  is  seen,  but  the  whole  attitude  shows  that  she  is 
struggling  with  her  feelings.  The  mother,  too,  seems  to  be 
concealing  a  little  embarrassment,  for  she  looks  into  a  wine-glass 
out  of  which  she  is  sipping."  The  extraordinary  qualities  it 
possesses  as  a  transcript  of  Nature  are  unrivalled,  and  the  satin 
gown  of  the  principal  figure  is  reality  itself. 

There  was  a  still  lower  class  of  imitative  art  practised  with 
unremitting  patience  and  assiduity  by  some  few  Dutch  painters. 
They  devoted  themselves  to  "  still-life,"  and  produced  repre- 
sentations of  the  humblest  furniture  of  the  kitchen.  At  the 
head  of  this  class  stands  William  Kalf,  who  was  born  at 
Amsterdam  in  1630,  and  died  in   1693,  having  devoted  his  life  not 


only  to  the  delineations  of  the  gold  and  silver  cups*  of  the  wealthy 
burgomaster,  but  to  the  humblest  utilities  of  his  establishment. 
Yet  such  simple  subjects  give  the  painter  opportunities  for 
composition,  colour,  and  chiaro-oscuro  of  the  finest  kind.  He 
brought  great  rules  of  art  to  bear  on  all  he  delineated,  and 
he  elevated  the  commonplace  to  the  poetic.  "  In  the  treatment 
even  of  these  things  there  is  an  ideal,  or  beautiful,  as  distinct 
from  a  literal  imitation."  f 

The  camp  life  of  the  Dutch  was  ably  represented  by  a  series  of 
painters,  who  delighted  to  depict 

"  Battle's  magnificently  stern  array." 

It  was,  unhappily,  too  common  a  sight  in  Holland  ;  the  history  of 
the  country  is  that  of  one  continuous  struggle  for  freedom.  The 
frightful  scenes  which  Callot  has  depicted  in  his  "  ^liseries  of 
War"  were  enacted  over  and  over  again  by  the  cruel  agents 
of  the  Duke  of  Alva  upon  the  devoted  and  suffering  people. 
While  they  must  have  hated  the  sight  of  a  Spanish  trooper,  they 
must  have  looked  with  joy  on  the  native  defenders  of  their 
country.  Certainly,  never  were  soldiers  braver  than  the  soldiers 
of  Holland  ;  never  did  men  fight  more  devotedly  for  a  country  ; 
never  were  imperishable  deeds  of  pure  patriotism  graven  deeper 


*  Tiic  Dutch  i)oct  who  composed  his  epitaph  declares  in  it,  that  all  the  plate  he  ever 
painted  would  not  be  suniciont  reward  to  so  virtuous  a  man  as  was  the  rdinctl  and  patient 
painter  of  these  metallic  treasures,  many  of  which  are  remarkable  for  their  fancy  and  taste 
in  design. 

t  Leslie,  "  Lectures  on  Tainting,"  p.  243. 


on  the  eternal  tablets  of  fame.  We  see  only  in  the  painting  of 
the  Hollander  the  picturesque  features  of  war — 

"  The  mounting  in  hot  haste  the  steed, 

The  mustering  squadron  and  the  clattering  car, 
That  pouring  forward  with  impetuous  speed 
Doth  swiftly  form  the  solid  ranks  of  war." 

The  prince  of  painters  in  this  branch  of  art  is  Philip 
Wouvermans.  There  is  a  picturesque  beauty  given  by  him  to 
camp-life,  which  has  an  irresistible  charm  for  the  eye.  We  see 
the  bustle  which  follows  the  trumpeter's  call  to  horse  ;  we  notice 
the  readiness  of  the  well-caparisoned  officer,  the  grudging 
departure  of  the  common  soldier,  absorbed  in  gambling  or 
drinking  till  the  last  moment  has  arrived  to  fall  into  the  ranks. 
The  gaiety  of  the  uniforms,  the  beauty  and  vigour  of  the  horses, 
the  entire  "  pictorial  element "  which  reigns  over  the  scene, 
makes  us  feel  that  war  thus 

"  Hid  in  magnificence,  and  drowned  in  state, 
Loses  the  fiend." 

It  is  a  proof  that  the  world  has  increased  in  humanity  as  the  last 
two  centuries  have  passed  over  it ;  for  it  has  been  the  province 
of  modern  art  alone  to  rob  war  of  its  false  glories,  and  teach  us 
to  look  on  the  reverse  of  the  picture.  Never  was  a  poem  more 
touchingly  written  than  that  which  Sir  Edwin  Landseer  has 
painted  in  his  pictures  of  "Peace"  and  "War:"  never  did 
philosopher  descant  more  convincingly  on  the  text  that  it  is 
chiefly 

"  Alan's  inhumanity  to  man 
Makes  countless  thousands  mourn." 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AXD    WORKS  OF 


Wouvermans  was  the  perfect  type  of  a  Dutchman — reserved, 
industrious,  and  eminently  fond  of  home.  During  his  whole 
lifetime  he  lived  in  Haarlem  (Fig.  1 1 1),  unvarying  the  calm  tenour 
of  his  course.  From  such  a  reserved  man  one  would  hardly 
expect  these  vivid  pictures  of  peculiar  phases  of  life.     He  also 


Fi".  1 1 1. — Gate  at  Haailcni. 


delighted  in  painting  jovial  parties  of  sportsmen — sometimes 
riding  out  with  ladies,  equipped  for  hawking,  and  sometimes 
galloping  over  heath  and  plain  after  the  hunted  stag,  or  reposing 
in  the  cool  shade  near  a  spring.  Kiigler,  who  notrs  this,  also 
remarks,   that  "  one  of  the  points  of  interest  in   these  pictures 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS. 


201 


is  the  feeling  for  well-bred  society  and  decorum,  assisted  by  some 
little  hint  at  a  novel-like  relation  between  the  personages 
represented.     The  other  main  point  of  interest  in  Wouverman's 


Fig.  112. — Wouvermans. 

pictures  is  derived  from  the  taste  and  knowledge  with  ^which 
he  delighted  to  paint  the  horse,  that  constant  companion  of 
the  out-door-life  of  a  gentleman,  in  all  its  various  and  manifold 

D   D 


situations.  In  many  of  his  works  the  horse  is  treated  as  the 
principal  figure  ;  he  painted  him  in  the  stable,  being  saddled, 
in  the  maiiegey  when  taken  to  water  or  to  the  fair  (Fig.  113). 
Other  subjects  which  afford  opportunity  for  prominently  dis- 
playing the  figure  of  the  horse — such  as  battles,  attacks  by 
robbers,  or   adventures  of  carriers — were  frequently  painted   by 


.'"^"■V 


Fig.  113. 


him."  He  had  a  somewhat  ideal  mode  of  treating  landscape 
accessories,  which  are  all  subservient  to  the  general  effect  of  the 
figures  introduced.  Although  his  brother  Peter  was  one  of  the 
most  successful  imitators  of  his  peculiarities,  Philip  may  be 
safely  said  to  have  originated  and  ui)li('ld  hy  liis  own  genius 
a  peculiar  phase  of  art,  which  hius  never  since  been  so  success- 
fully cultivated. 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS.  203 


Van  der  Meulen,  more  ambitious,  and  less  caring  for  the 
quietude  of  home-life,  became  a  camp-follower  of  Louis  XIV., 
and  painted  the  campaigns  of  that  monarch  from  observation, 
industriously  covering  the  walls  of  Versailles  with  pictures 
of  its  master's  heroism  ;  and  here  the  Grande  Mo7iarque  could 
repose  amid  the  contemplation  of  his  own  glories,  and  listen 
to  the  adulations  of  Boileau  and  Racine.  The  full-dressed 
glories  of  his  battles,  as  depicted  by  his  Dutch  servant,  seem  to 
render  war  a  mere  showy  masquerade,  did  we  not  see  the 
devastation  which  proceeds  far  away  from  king  and  courtier 
in  the  distance,  and  know  from  the  truer  page  of  history  the 
wanton  and  wicked  invasions  this  cold-hearted  voluptuary  con- 
tinually made  upon  better  men  than  himself. 

Marine-painting  more  naturally  fell  within  the  scope  of  the 
Hollander,  and  nowhere  else  did  the  art  flourish  so  well  as 
among  the  Dutch  painters.  Ludolf  Backhuysen  and  William 
Van  der  Velde  are  names  which  take  highest  place  in  this 
department.  It  is  recorded  that  Admiral  de  Ruyter  ordered 
cannon  to  be  fired  from  his  noble  vessels  of  war,  for  the 
express  purpose  of  its  effects  being  studied  by  the  latter  artist 
when  engaged  in  painting  his  sea-fights. 

It  therefore  is  in  "the  actual,"  as  exhibited  in  every  phase  of 
life  and  nature,  that  the  artists  of  Holland  achieved  their 
position  ;  but  paramount  as  their  claims  may  be  in  this 
particular,  we  find  sublimity  combined  with  it  in  the  works  of 
Rembrandt,  and  poetry  in  Cuyp  and  Ruysdael.  All  is,  however, 
strongly  tinged  with  native  feeling,  so  unmistakably  pronounced 


204  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND  WORKS  OF 

that  we  could  not  mistake  a  Dutch  picture  for  the  production 
of  the  painters  of  any  other  nation.  It  is  as  visible  in  the 
landscapes  of  Hobbema  as  it  is  in  the  peasant  scenes  of  Ostade. 
But  it  was  chiefly  the  popular  scenes  of  Dutch  life  by  the  genre- 
painters  that  gave  celebrity  to  this  new  school  of  art,  and  made  it 
generally  popular. 

We  by  no  means  intend  in  this  place  to  combat  the 
objections  made  to  this  style  of  art  by  the  admirers  of  the 
ideal  school,  or  the  elevated  conceptions  of  the  great  masters 
of  Italy ;  but  simply  to  plead  for  the  fact  of  as  much  ideality 
and  poetry  existing  in  the  works  of  the  Dutch  as  their  sphere 
of  action  will  allow.  We  plead  for  their  truth  ;  for  the  perfect 
art-power  they  have  in  displaying  this  truth  ;  for  the  sentiment 
and  feeling  that  continually  lurk  beneath  it,  to  gratify  all  who 
will  diligently  search  for  it,  there  as  elsewhere  in  the  world 
it  remains — hidden  from  merely  superficial  observation.  M. 
Charles  Blanc  has  grappled  with  the  most  difficult  portion  of 
this  subject  when  treating  of  the  works  of  Rembrandt ;  we  will 
only,  therefore,  refer  to  the  labours  of  such  artists  among  the 
other  painters  of  the  Low  Countries  as  make  ordinary  life  the 
subjects  of  their  pencils.  Leslie,  in  his  '*  Lectures,"  has  put 
these  claims  clearly.  He  says,  "  The  great  merit  of  the  Flemish 
and  Dutch  painters  is  the  absence  of  all  affected  and  mawkish 
sensibility — all  that  stage  trickery  on  the  spectator,  by  which 
he  is  made  to  believe  himself  touched  to  the  heart.  This  false 
sentiment  began  with  Greuze,  and  has  ever  since  more  or  less 
infected   art."     Their   power  of  conveying   interest   to  the  most 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS.  205 

ordinary  actions  he  illustrates  by  one  public  example.  He  says, 
"There  are  few  pictures  in  our  National  Gallery  before  which 
I  find  myself  more  often  standing  than  the  very  small  one  by 
Maas,  the  subject  of  which  is  the  scraping  of  a  parsnip.  A 
decent-looking  Dutch  housewife  sits  intently  engaged  in  this 
operation,  with  a  fine  chubby  child  standing  by  her  side  watching 
the  process,  as  children  will  stand  and  watch  the  most  ordinary 
operations,  with  an  intensity  of  interest  as  if  the  very  existence 
of  the  whole  world  depended  on  the  exact  manner  in  which 
that  parsnip  was  scraped.  It  is  not  the  colour  and  light  and 
shadow  of  this  charming  little  gem,  superlative  as  they  are, 
that  constitute  its  great  attraction  ;  for  a  mere  outline  of  it  would 
arrest  attention  among  a  thousand  subjects  of  its  class,  and 
many  pictures  as  beautiful  in  effect  might  not  interest  so  much ; 
but  it  is  the  delight  at  seeing  a  trait  of  childhood  we  have  often 
observed  and  been  amused  with  in  Nature,  for  the  first  time 
so  felicitously  given  by  art.  I  have  noticed  the  natural  manner 
in  which  Raphael  and  other  great  painters  represented  children 
as  wholly  uninterested  in  that  which  engages  the  attention  of 
their  elders.  Here  the  incident  is  exactly  the  reverse,  and 
treated  with  equal  felicity."  It  may  startle  some  few  minds  to 
find  this  conjunction  of  the  names  of  Raphael  and  Maas  ;  but  no 
happier  instance  could  prove  the  fact  that 

"  One  touch  of  Nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin." 

If  we  owe  the  artists  of  Holland  no  other  gratitude  for  their 
labours,  let  us  at  least  award  them  this  their  just  due — all  honour 


2o6  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF 


for  the  true  and  persevering  study  of  Nature.  The  world  had 
been  in  danger  of  losing  simplicity  in  art,  and  getting  the 
laboured  results  of  scholastic  rules  instead  :  an  art  that  every  one 
might  comprehend,  and  be  improved  by  the  comprehension, 
was  evolved  from  the  ateliers  of  Holland.  It  taught  that  the 
world  around  us  is  filled  with  poetry  to  reward  the  ardent  seeker 
of  the  beautiful,  and  it  displayed  this  truth  with  all  the  vigour  of 
an  honest  nature. 

The  lives  of  these  artists  are  instructive  even  in  their 
unobtrusiveness.  Brief  as  our  notices  have  necessarily  been  of 
their  career,  there  is  little  more  to  record  of  them.  They  passed 
their  lives  in  the  closest  study  of  Nature,  and  found  in  her  varied 
beauties  enough  to  employ  it  well  in  imitating  her  charms ; 
content  in  the  sphere  of  action  to  which  their  genius  had  assigned 
them,  they  worked  on  regardless  of  the  more  prosaic  men  around 
them,  and  patiently  waited  the  recognition  of  the  inherent  truth 
of  their  works.  Some  were  honoured  in  their  own  day,  and 
reaped  the  harvest  they  had  sown,  but  others  lived  poor  and 
died  neglected  ;  yet  who  shall  say  they  were  not  happier  men 
than  the  wealthier  merchants  of  their  land  ?  Untrammelled  by 
the  cares  of  trade,  and  freely  roaming  in  scenes  his  heart 
responds  to,  the  painter,  however  poor,  is  wealthy  in  his  nobk-r 
aspirations  after  the  beautiful,  implanted  in  the  world  by  the 
divine  hand  of  its  Maker.  The  mammon-worshipping  professor 
of  art  may  be  endued  with  genius  occasionally,  but  he  is  a 
rara  avis^  and  is  considerably  outnumbered  by  his  less  wealthy 
brethren.     It  is,  however,  essential  to  greatness  that  it  be  allied 


THE  DUTCH  GENRE-PAINTERS.  207 

to  devotion,  and  that  cannot  be  without  some  abandonment 
of  self.  The  world,  it  has  been  said,  frequently  knows  nothing 
of  its  greatest  men  ;  but  are  not  such  men  made  great  by- 
abstraction  from  its  narrowing  jealousies,  its  struggles  for  power, 
its  sacrifice  of  simplicity  and  pure-mindedness  at  the  shrine  of 
wealth  and  worldliness  ? 


THE  DUTCH   LANDSCAPE  AND  FLOWER-PAINTERS. 


E  E 


THE   DUTCH   LANDSCAPE   AND   FLOWER- 
PAINTERS. 


j|ANDSCAPE-PAINTING  as  an  independent  art,  is  the 
youngest  of  the  category.  Beautiful  as  were  the  back- 
ground views  introduced  into  the  works  of  the  old 
painters,  they  were  backgrounds  merely,  and  secondary  to  the 
main  intention  of  the  picture.  As  an  art  self-reliant  in  its  claims, 
it  does  not  appear  to  have  come  boldly  forth,  willing  to  stand  on 
its  own  merits,  before  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  to 
the  artists  of  the  Low  Countries  that  we  owe  this  now  popular 
branch  of  art.  The  landscape  backgrounds  of  the  early  German 
and  Flemish  masters  certainly  originated  the  art,  but  it  was  the 
later  painters  of  Holland  who  perfected  its  power.  Appended 
to  Kiigler's  remarks,  in  his  "Handbook  of  Painting,"  that 
"  Landscape,  in  the  hands  of  Titian  and  Giorgione,  sometimes 
assumed  an  independent  character,  and  it  is  said  that  Titian  was 
the  first  to  treat  it  as  a  separate  branch  of  Art,"  we  have  this 
note,  by  Sir  Charles  Eastlake  —  "  Landscape-painting  in  Italy, 
however  independent  in  its  perfection,  appears  in  its  origin 
to  have  been  indebted,  in  more  than  one  instance,  to  a  German 
influence.     Vasari  distinctly  says  that  Titian  kept  some  German 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF  THE 


landscape-painters  in  his  house,  and  studied  with  them  for  some 
months.  In  Bologna  it  is  probable  that  Denys  Calvert,  a 
Flemish  artist,  first  excited  the  emulation  of  the  Caracci, 
Domenichino,  and  others,  who,  in  the  end,  formed  so  distin- 
guished a  school  of  landscape-painters.  In  both  these  instances 
a  certain  resemblance  to  the  German  manner,  however  differently- 
modified  by  the  character  of  the  schools,  is  to  be  recognised, 
especially  in  the  umbellated  treatment  of  the  foliage."  It  is 
impossible  for  any  student  of  mediaeval  art  not  to  have  been 
frequently  struck  by  the  great  beauty  of  the  landscape  back- 
grounds introduced  into  the  historic  or  religious  pictures  of 
that  period.  It  is  true  that  they  are  always  conventionally 
treated,  and  rendered  subservient  to  the  ruling  motive  of  the 
picture  ;  but  we  cannot  wonder  that  landscape  should  eventually 
assert  its  own  sole  power  of  charming,  by  the  repose  and  beauty 
it  imparts,  even  when  used  as  a  simple  accessory.  The  works 
of  Van  Eyck,  Memling,  and  Diirer,  frequently  allow  landscape  to 
share  at  least  one  half  of  the  attention  of  the  spectator ;  and  they 
appear  to  have  intended  this,  to  give  a  certain  air  to  their 
compositions  which  would  else  be  wanting.  It  was  their  avowed 
object  to  delineate  great  space,  and  they  did  this  by  invariably 
carrying  the  eye  of  the  spectator  to  the  extreme  distance  of  the 
view  by  concentrating  the  light  upon  the  horizon :  nothing 
can  exceed  the  brilliancy,  beauty,  clearness,  and  depth  of  space 
exhibited  in  these  early  works.  It  induced  others  of  the  school  to 
go  further,  and  make  the  figures  in  a  historical  or  religious 
picture  secondary  to  it;   but  it  was   not    until    the  beginning  of 


DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FLOWER-PAINTERS.         213 


the  seventeenth  century  that  the  grand  conceptions  of  Poussin 
and  Rubens  gave  entire  independence  to  this  branch  of  art, 
and  proved  its  innate  power  to  command  alone  its  own  tribe 
of  worshippers.  The  Dutch  painters  afterwards  persevered  in  the 
new  track  until  the  triumph  was  complete. 

The  fantastic  redundancy  of  details,  the  conventional  [forms 
of  trees,  and  the  equally  conventional  treatment  of  the  general 
effect  in  very  early  landscapes  by  the  artists  of  the  Low  Countries, 
were  completely  cast  aside  in  the  grander  and  truer  works  which 
resulted  from  the  ateliers  of  Holland.  Annibale  Caracci  had 
sometimes  devoted  himself  to  the  delineation  of  the  scenery 
of  the  Apennines ;  and  contemporary  with  him  there  lived  at 
Rome  Paul  Bril,  who,  born  at  Antwerp,  combined  the  taste  of 
his  native  school  with  that  of  the  greater  Italian.  Suddenly, 
a  series  of  landscape-painters  appear  upon  the  stage,  and  the 
early  parts  of  the  century  saw  the  master-minds  of  Poussin 
and  Rubens  joined  by  Claude,  the  most  charming  of  all.  He 
received  his  early  training  from  the  Fleming,  Paul  Bril ;  and  one 
great  trait  of  the  early  school  is  visible  in  his  works — the  love 
of  repose,  and  the  idea  of  air  and  space,  given  by  condensing  the 
light  on  the  horizon,  or  in  the  extreme  distance  of  the  picture. 
The  ideal  beauty  thus  evolved  in  the  works  of  these  great  men 
kept  up  and  stimulated  the  school  of  landscape-painters  in 
the  Low  Countries,  and  contemporary  with  Claude  and  John 
Both,  were  Jacob  Ruysdael,  John  Wynants,  John  Baptist  Weenix, 
and  his  greater  pupil,  Nicholas  Berghem,  who  were  all  occupied 
on  landscape  solely  ;  while  such  master-minds  as  those  of  Cuyp 


and  Potter  made  its  beauties  an  integral  part  of  their  immortal 
works.  Rembrandt  had  devoted  his  powerful  genius  to  the 
display  of  effects  hitherto  undeveloped  in  the  art,  and  the 
grandeur  with  which  he  invested  a  simple  landscape  by  the  aid 
of  powerful  chtaro-oscuro,  and  the  study  of  storm  and  sunshine,  as 
in  his  famous  "  Three  Trees,"  vindicated  the  art  from  a  low  level, 
and  gave  it  a  position  that  only  the  genius  of  our  own  great 
masters,  Gainsborough,  Constable,  Wilson,  Turner,  Linnell,  and 
others,  could  elevate. 

This  youngest  daughter  of  the  arts,  though  unquestionably 
the  favourite  of  the  public,  has  been  received  by  her  sisters  in 
some  degree  as  an  interloper,  and  her  claim  to  equal  sympathy 
denied.  Surely  this  is  unjust :  is  God's  beautiful  world  less  to  be 
valued,  or  less  worthy  our  study,  than  the  world  of  man's 
passion  ?  "  Rocks,  trees,  mountains,  plains,  and  waters,"  says 
Leslie,  "  are  the  features  of  landscape  ;  but  its  expression  is  from 
above.  The  love  of  landscape  is  a  love  so  pure  that  it  can 
never  associate  with  the  relishes  of  a  mere  voluptuary,  and 
wherever  such  a  love  is  native,  it  is  the  certain  indication  of 
a  superior  mind."  Constable  declared  of  one  of  Gainsborough's 
landscapes,  "  I  cannot  think  of  it,  even  now,  without  tears  in  my 
eyes."  How  many  of  Constable's  pictures  are  redolent  of  all  the 
freshness  of  earth's  beauties !  so  fresh,  so  pure,  that  wc  may 
almost  exclaim  with  Gray — 


"  I  feci  the  gales  that  from  ye  blow 
A  momentary  bliss  bestow." 


DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FL 0  WER-PAINTERS.         2 1 5 


Any  eulogy  on  Turner,  whose  pictures  are  poems,  would  be 
inappropriate  here  ;  an  abler  pen  has  enforced  his  claims  to 
honour.  We  would  merely  remark  that  it  is  unbecoming  in 
Englishmen,  at  any  rate,  to  depreciate  this  lovely  art;  for, 
rivalled  as  we  may  be  in  other  branches,  in  this  the  genius  of 
English  painters  is  acknowledged  to  be  supreme. 

In  the  pictures  by  Ruysdael  there  is  a  grandeur  of  composition 
and  a  boldness  of  treatment  which  belong  to  no  other  Dutch 
landscape-painter.  He  alone  displays  mountain  scenery  and 
foaming  cataracts,  which  must  have  been  idealisations  in  a  great 
degree — he  could  not  have  studied  the  grand  features  he  depicts 
in  the  monotony  of  his  own  land,  which  some  authors  assure 
us  he  never  quitted.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  he  rambled 
to  Guelderland  and  Westphalia ;  but,  allowing  this,  he  must 
have  exaggerated  what  he  could  see  there,  to  produce  the  noble 
mountains  and  boldly-dashing  waterfalls  he  delighted  to  depict.* 
He  was  born  at  Haarlem  in  1636  (Fig.  115),  and  was  the  son 
of  a  picture-frame  maker.  Of  a  gloomy  and  reserved  temper, 
he  lived  alone,  and  died  poor  in  1681  ;  yet  his  works  have  a  rare 


*  It  has  been  asserted  that  Ruysdael  constructed  models  to  paint  from,  composed  of 
small  twigs  and  fractured  stones,  which  he  exaggerated  into  trees  and  mountains,  and  so 
composed  his  works.  Such  antagonisms  might  be  doubted,  had  we  not  other  instances 
where  the  artistic  mind  has  been  stimulated  by  the  very  opposite  means  that  would 
ordinarily  be  supposed  were  used.  Thus  it  is  known  of  Guido  that  his  most  beautiful 
female  heads  were  painted  from  a  male  colour-grinder,  who  is  described  as  perfectly 
hideous,  and  whose  features  were  transformed  into  a  itagdalen,  with  the  same  pose  and 
chiaro-oscuro,  but  with  perfect  beauty ;  the  artist  evidently  using  his  model  as  a  means  of 
producing  beauty  by  contrast  alone. 


2l6 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF  THE 


excellence.     The  ideality  which   invests   his   scenes  is  gloomily 


grand,  worthy  of  tho  solitary  man  who  lived  only  for   his    art, 
and    saw  only  the    severe  or   terrible  features  of  nature.     If  he 


DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FLOWER-PAINTERS. 


217 


painted  a  native  scene,  which  seldom  occurred,  it  is  invested  with 
the  mouraful  gloom  of  Holland,  rather  than  with  the  happier 
features  depicted  by  other  artists.  His  pictures  are  to  landscape- 
art  what  the  Spanish  school  is  to  the  French — vigorous  and 
grand,  but  terrible.     His  scholars,  Hobbema  and  De  Vries,  lose 


Fig.  115. — Street  in  Haarlem. 


his  gloom  ;  but  the  former  retains  much  of  his  grandeur,  though 
devoted  to  less  ambitious  scenes. 

Casting  away  all  lugubrious  views  of  his  own  countr}', 
Berghem  delighted  in  representing  simple  nature  in  full  joyous- 
ness.      In  this  quality  he  differs  from  most  masters  of  the  Dutch 

F  F 


2i8  HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF  THE 

school.  He  is  the  very  reverse  of  his  friend  Ruysdael.  The 
gloomy  grandeur  of  his  solitary  and  poetic  mind  impresses  itself 
on  the  scenes  he  depicts  ;  and  you  cannot  study  them  without 
a  feeling  of  "  divine  melancholy "  creeping  over  the  mind. 
Berghem,  on  the  contrary,  delights  in  bright  skies,  light  clouds, 
and  cheerful  pastoral  scenes.  Unlike  Ruysdael,  he  seeks  not 
northern  gloom,  but  rather  southern  sunshine.  He  was  born 
at  Haarlem  in  1624,  and  was  the  son  of  Peter  Van  Haerlem,* 
a  painter  of  very  moderate  ability,  who  lived  by  delineating  those 
pictures  of  still-life  in  which  the  Hollanders  delighted.  He  had, 
however,  excellent  instruction  from  the  artists  who  knew  his 
father,  and  who  liked  the  cheeerful  disposition  of  the  son  ;  and 
his  uncle  Weenix,  whose  daughter  he  married,  improved  his 
tastes.  He  was  intimate  in  the  best  part  of  his  life  with 
Wouvermans,  Everdingen,  Both,  and  Ruysdael ;  and  his  time 
passed  happily  in  the  varied  society  of  such  friends.  With  them, 
or  with  nature,  or  else  in  delineating  her  better  features  in  his 
own  studio,  he  knew  peace  ;  but  not  with  his  wife,  who  was  in 
disposition  sordid,  while  the  painter  possessed  the  geniality  of 
soul  which  beams  forth  on  his  canvas.  It  is  related  of  her  that 
she  constantly  spurred  him  to  exertion  by  knocking  against  the 
wall   of  his   studio,   and   kept   his   earnings   that  he  might   not 


•  The  name  he  is  popularly  known  liy  is  a  sobriquet,  which  originated,  it  is  said,  in  his 
escaping  from  the  infliction  of  some  chastisement  from  his  father's  house  to  that  of  the 
painter  Van  Goycn,  who,  fearful  that  the  irritated  parent  should  reach  him,  called  to 
the  inmates,  Bcrtf  hem  (or,  hide  him). 


indulge  his  taste  for  old  prints.  In  the  Chateau  of  Bentheim, 
where  he  resided,  he  had  but  to  walk  to  the  windows  of  his  studio 
to  gaze  on  green  meadows,  luxuriant  trees,  and  cattle  in  every 
variety  of  grouping.  Some  writers  affirm  that  he  must  have 
travelled  to  Italy,  and  could  not  have  obtained  by  the  aid  of  his 
own  large  collection  of  prints  the  ruins  and  temples  he  so  well 
depicted  in  some  of  his  works.  They  do  not,  however,  sufficiently 
take  into  consideration  the  great  constructiveness  of  some  artistic 
minds — the  way  they  comprehend  one  object  through  another. 
All  Berghem's  southern  scenes  are  really  translated  into  Dutch. 
His  power  of  imitation  is  known  to  have  been  so  great,  that 
he  could  deceive  connoisseurs  by  painting  in  the  precise  style 
of  other  artists. 

He  had  many  pupils,  among  whom  the  only  happy  hours 
of  his  life  passed.  Karel  Dujardin  is  conjectured  to  have  been 
one  ;  but  he  certainly  taught  Peter  de  Hooge,  Dirk  Maas,  and 
Artus  Van  der  Neer.  This  latter  artist  delighted  to  paint  the 
effects  of  evening  and  night.  "A  piece  of  w^ater  in  a  wood,  sur- 
rounded by  high  dark  trees  ;  a  lonely  canal,  whose  tranquil  surface 
reflects  the  light  of  the  moon  ;  a  city  in  repose,  steeped  in  the 
quiet  moonlight — sometimes  the  calm  peacefulness  of  night  broken 
by  the  glaring  light  of  a  conflagration  ;  these  are  the  subjects 
which  Van  der  Neer  delighted  to  repeat  in  the  most  free  and 
pleasing  style ;  and  with  these  he  again  and  again  rivets  the  eyes 
of    the   spectators."*       In   our    National   Gallery   we   possess    a 

*  KiJsler's  "  Handbook  of  Painlino." 


220  HOMES^  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF  THE 


charming  specimen  of  his  power  of  conveying  the  peculiar  effects 
of  moonlight — an  effect  which  could  not  be  secured  by  sketching, 
and  therefore  argues  a  most  retentive  memory  for  the  varied  hues 
of  nature. 

There  is  another  and  a  distinct  class  of  students  of  nature 
whom  the  Dutch  school  originated — they  who  "represent  what 
may  be  called  the  still-life  of  field-plants,  under  whose  friendly 
shelter  beetles  and  lizards,  little  birds  and  snakes,  pass  their 
unheeded  existence  ;  "*  or  who  depict  the  magnificent  bouquets  in 
richly-sculptured  vases,  with  which  the  rich  merchant  princes 
of  Holland  decorated  their  mansions  ;  or  else  dispose  of  them 
in  "most  admired  disorder,  strewn  upon  a  table,  or  entwined 
around  a  picture  or  bas-relief."  John  Breughel  was  one  of  the 
earliest  artists  who  delighted  in  making  pictures  of  these  "  stars 
of  the  earth;"  and  he  was  succeeded  and  outstripped  by  his 
scholar,  Daniel  Seghers,  who  first  grouped  their  forms  and 
colours  into  harmonious  conjunction,  and  carried  high  prin- 
ciples of  composition  into  his  works.  A  peculiar  poetic 
feeling  also  pervades  the  flower-painting  of  John  David  de 
Heem  ;  and  from  his  atelier  proceeded  many  excellent  scholars, 
and  among  them  some  few  ladies,  to  whom  the  art  has  always 
presented  charms.  The  most  celebrated  lady  flower-painter  was 
Rachel  Ruysch,  or  Van  Pool,  her  married  name,  who  flourished  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  and  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 


•   KiiKlci's  "llaiidlwok  i>r  I'.iintiii;,'." 


DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FLOWER-PAINTERS.        221 


century.  At  the  same  period  lived  John  Van  Huysum,  whose 
flowers  are  said  to  want  only  perfume  to  make  them  real. 

This  celebrated  artist  was  born  at  Amsterdam  in  1682,  and 
was  the  son  of  a  house-decorator.  The  incidents  of  his  life 
consist,  as  usual  with  Dutch  artists,  of  the  catalogue  of  his  works. 
Between  painting  at  home  and  visiting  the  flower-gardens  of 
Haarlem,  his  days  passed  quietly  away.  He  died  in  1749,  after 
having  enjoyed  great  patronage  for  his  works,  which  were  sold  at 
a  high  rate,  and  were  sought  for  by  most  of  the  European 
sovereigns  and  nobles. 

The  taste  for  decorative  gardening  and  rare  flowers  was  at 
this  period  carried  to  the  greatest  extent ;  men  would  ruin  them- 
selves to  possess  a  certain  tulip-bulb ;  the  records  of  no  country 
produce  parallels  to  the  mania  for  flowers  which  once  beset  the 
Hollander.  Haarlem  was  the  grand  centre  of  their  growth,  and 
thither  came  rich  amateurs  from  all  parts  of  Holland,  as  well  as 
from  distant  countries.*  The  flower-gardens  of  this  city  are  still 
famous,  and  hyacinth-bulbs  are  even  now  sent  from  thence  to  all 
parts  of  Europe.  One  of  Captain  Cook's  companions  declared 
that  when  at  sea,  opposite  the  coast  beyond  Haarlem,,  when  the 
wind  set  from  the  land,  "  through  the  placid  atmosphere  we  could 
distinguish  the  balsamic  odour  of  the  hyacinth  and  other  flowers  r" 


*  It  is  recorded  that  the  anemone  was  first  brought  to  England  from  a  Dutch  garden, 
whose  proprietor  was  so  chary  of  his  flowers  that  on  no  consideration  would  he  part  with 
plant  or  seed.  The  visitor  accordingly  arrayed  himself  in  a  shaggy  great  coat,  which 
brushed  the  seed  from  the  plant  in  passing,  and  which  was  carefully  gathered  from  the 
folds  of  the  garment  after  his  departure  from  the  garden. 


There  can  be  no  more  beautiful  sight  than  these  Dutch  gardens, 
with  their  glorious  beds  of  flowers.  The  soil  of  Holland  seems  to 
suit  their  growth,  and  the  brightness  of  their  hues  contrasts 
forcibly  with  the  deep  green  of  the  trees  and  hedges.  Wherever 
you  travel  in  this  country  you  see  this  love  of  pleasure-gardens ; 
and  over  the  decoration  and  "stock"  large  sums  of  money  are 
expended.  Rows  of  summer-houses  gay  with  the  brightest 
colours  line  the  canals,  each  inscribed  with  a  name  or  motto,  as 
"Rosenthal,"  " Lilienthal,"  &c.,  or  "Lust  en  rust"  (Pleasure  and 
ease),  "Niet  zoo  zwaalyk"  (Not  so  bad!)  "  Vriendschap  en 
gezelschap "  (Friendship  and  sociality),  "  Het  vermaak  is  in't 
hovenieren  "  (There  is  pleasure  in  gardening),  &c.  Here  the  men 
smoke  and  the  ladies  knit,  amusing  themselves  with  looking 
out  on  the  passers-by.  In  front  of  its  windows  a  canal  or  ditch 
stagnates,  its  waters  only  disturbed  by  the  passage  of  a  boat,  or 
the  plash  of  the  enormous  water-rats  or  frogs  with  which  they 
abound.  Thus,  in  the  words  of  Beckford,  "  Every  flower  that 
wealth  can  purchase  diffuses  its  perfume  on  one  side ;  while 
every  stench  a  canal  can  exhale  poisons  the  air  on  the  other." 
The  gardens  of  the  ancient  chateaux  of  Holland  were  much  more 
artistic  than  the  modern  :  arcades  were  formed  of  clipped  yews, 
or  trained  creepers,  over  trellisscs  supported  by  caryatides,  as 
shown  in  our  cut  from  a  Dutch  print  dated  1653  (Fig.  116).  Now 
they  are  generally  quite  square,  bounded  by  clipped  hedges,  with 
every  walk  geometrically  true,  and  embellished  witli  rows  of  stiff 
poplars,  or  square-cut  trees  at  each  angle,  to  complete  the 
monotony ;  a  fish-pond  generally  occupies  the  centre  ;   or,  if  the 


D UTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FL  O  WER-PAINTERS.        2  2 3 


garden  be  a  small  one,  a  small  post  is  placed  in  the  midst, 
supporting  a  large  glass  globe  darkened  inside,  and  which  serves 
as  a  mirror  to  reflect  the  neighbourhood  all  around  it.  Trim  box 
borders  edge  each  parterre,  which  is  religiously  devoted  to  the 
display  of  one  kind  of  flower  alone,  and  nothing  like  a  weed  is  to 
be  seen  anywhere  (Fig.  117).  It  would  seem  as  if  the  constant 
care  a  Dutchman   must  bestow  on  his  land.,  to  protect  it  from 


Fig.  116. — Dutch  Garden,  1653. 

destruction,  and  "  make  "  the  earth  fit  for  produce,  induces  him  to 
think  all  nature  requires  his  improving  hand  ;  hence  the  trees  are 
mercilessly  trimmed  and  cut,  and  the  stranger  in  Haarlem  is 
amused  with  the  square  and  oblong  masses  of  foliage  which  appear 
so  compact  upon  the  summits  of  the  poles  in  front  of  the  houses 
(Fig.  118).  These  stems  of  the  tortured  plants  are  sometimes 
further  improved  (and  the  stranger  more  completely  mystified)  by 


224 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND   WORKS  OF  THE 


being  painted  with  the  bright  colours  a  Dutchman  so  delights  in. 
These  town-trees  are  most  frequently  trained  over  an  iron  trellis- 
work,  to  which  each  branch  is  affixed,  like  an  espalier  to  an 
orchard-wall,  and  every  straggling  shoot  or  leaf  lopped  away. 
Sometimes,  at  a  street  comer,  a  naked  stump  supports  a  flat 
screen  of  verdure,  which  faces  each  angle  of  the  house  like  a  fire- 
screen (Fig.   119).      The  trees  most  employed  are  the  yew,  the 


Fig.  117. — A  Modern  Dutch  Garden. 

holly,  and  the  box :  here  the  patience  of  the  gardener  reaps  a  rich 
reward,  and  in  process  of  time  he  can  torture  them  into  any 
form : — 

"  The  sufiering  eye  inverted  nature  sees, — 
Trees  cut  to  statues,  statues  thick  .is  trees." 


It  would  scarcely  be  imagined  that  so  stolid  a  people  as  the 
Dutch  would  be  carried  away  by  an  enthusiasm  for  flowers.  Yet 
the  annals  of  their  tulip-mania,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  are 


DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FL 0  WER-PAINTERS.        2 2  ^ 


unequalled  in  the  world.  In  1635,  the  rage  among  the  Dutch 
to  possess  them  was  so  great,  that  the  ordinary  industry  of  the 
country  was  neglected,  and  the  population,  even  to  its  lowest 
dregs,  embarked  in  the  tulip  trade.  As  the  mania  increased 
prices  augmented,  until,  in  the  year  1635,  many  persons  were 
known  to  invest  a  fortune  of  100,000  florins  in  the  purchase  of 
forty  roots.     One  tulip,  named  Admiral  Liefkin,  was  valued  at 


Fig.  nb. — Dutch  Tree. 

4,400  florins  ;  the  rarest,  named  Semper  Augustus,  at  5,500.  At 
one  period  only  two  of  these  bulbs  were  in  Holland,  one  at 
Amsterdam,  the  other  at  Haarlem  ;  for  the  latter,  twelve  acres  of 
building  ground  was  offered  ;  the  former  was  purchased  for  4,000 
florins,  and  a  carriage  and  horses.  Hunting,  a  Dutch  writer  of 
the  day,  has  written  a  folio  on  the  rage,  which  now  took  the  form 
of  gambling,  and  regular  marts  for  tulip-sales  were  opened  in  all 
the  principal  towns  of  Holland  ;  but,  though  large  purchases  were 

G    G 


226 


HOMES,  HAUNTS,  AND  WORKS  OF  THE 


eiFected  at  enormous  prices,  the  tulips  did  not  really  make  part  of 
the  transaction  :  they  represented  but  a  gambling  medium,  and 
ultimately  the  holders  of  the  bulbs,  who  sold  to  realise  their 
profits,  found,  when  the  furore  had  abated,  that  they  represented 
no  real  property.  Hundreds  became  ruined  men,  and  it  was 
many  years  before  the  country  recovered  from  the  miseries  this 
gambling  in  flowers  had  produced. 

By  the  aid  of  these  notes  and  sketches  we  hope  to  have  made 


Holland  better  known  to  Englishmen.  It  is  a  country  whose 
quaint  peculiarities  have  no  semblance  elsewhere.  Its  features 
are  unique,  its  people  highly  national ;  its  history  one  of  the  most 
exciting  and  glorious  that  can  be  offered  to  the  student  or 
the  patriot.  In  its  connection  with  the  development  of  the  great 
Reformation  in  the  Church,  or  with  the  politics  of  our  own 
country,  it  abounds  in  interest;    and   it   is   somewhat   singular 


DUTCH  LANDSCAPE  AND  FLOWER-PAINTERS.         227 

that  a  country  which   offers   so  much   to   attract   the   attention 
of  the  educated  tourist  should  be  so  little  visited. 

We  now  bid  adieu  to  the  Dutch  painters.  In  the  course  of  our 
remarks  we  have  enforced  the  nature  of  their  peculiar  claims,  and 
we  need  not  here  recount  them.  No  school  was  more  realistic 
in  its  tendencies,  none  honester  in  its  truthful  delineation  of 
nature,  or  more  capable  of  evolving  the  poetry  in  ordinary  life. 
Spite  of  all  prejudice  they  worked  the  mine  well  which  they  knew 
contained  the  gold,  and  though  some  of  the  dross  may  adhere  to 
the  metal,  the  gold  is  there  in  its  native  purity  also. 


THE   HOUSE   OF   MICHAEL  ANGELO, 
AT   FLORENCE. 


THE   HOUSE   OF    MICHAEL  ANGELO, 
AT   FLORENCE. 


|ERO-WORSHIP  is  natural  to  all  men,  and  the  most 
anti-poetic  have  their  heroes,  whom  they  worship 
all  unconsciously  themselves,  while  laughing  at  the 
enthusiasm  of  more  poetic  minds.  The  constructor  of  the  most 
matter-of-fact  piece  of  machinery  has  some  other  machinist  in  his 
mind's  eye,  to  whom  he  looks  up  with  the  reverence,  not  unmixed 
with  the  awe,  belonging  to  a  superior.  All  this  is  but  another 
phase  in  the  mental  homage  paid  from  man  to  man  when  the  mind 
of  each  is  attuned  to  the  same  study,  and  can  therefore  best 
appreciate  triumphs  attained  by  the  earnest  thought  of  his  fellow. 
The  man  who  studies  a  steam-engine,  and  he  who  dreams  over 
a  picture  by  Turner,  are  both  similarly  occupied  in  hero- 
worshipping  ;  their  heroes  only  are  different. 

Coleridge,  who  spent  a  life  in  day-dreams,  had  a  particular 
objection  to  that  off-shoot  of  hero-worship,  which  invests  with  a 
sacred  interest  all  that  connects  itself  with  the  worldly  presence 
of  the  hero ;  and  he  consequently  argued  against  the  custom  of 
visiting  localities  sanctified   by  the  residence  of  men  of  genius. 


232  THE  HOUSE  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO, 

He  held  that  it  was  a  disenchantment,  a  destruction  of  previous 
imaginings,  to  go  to  a  place  and  find  it  a  very  different  thing  to 
that  you  had  built  up  in  your  own  mind.  But  the  same  argument 
would  hold  good  with  regard  to  portraiture,  and  prevent  us  from 
thus  studying  our  great  authors,  lest  our  notions  of  their  features 
should  be  rudely  destroyed.  It  is  clear  that  the  great  majority  of 
the  world  differs  entirely  from  Coleridge,  and  desires  to  see 
memorials  of  the  men,  and  the  localities  they  lived  in,  as  the  best 
mode  of  realising  their  sojourn  on  earth. 

Llany  weary  miles  have  been  trodden,  and  much  peril  and 
privation  undergone,  in  thus  wandering  in  the  pathways  of  the 
great  departed ;  but  "  the  labour  we  delight  in  physics  pain,"  and 
it  may  be  doubted  if  happier  moments  are  ever  passed  than  those 
enjoyed  by  the  enthusiastic  man  employed  in  such  investigations. 
It  has  been  my  fortune  to  enjoy  many,  and  to  secure  them  I 
have  travelled  often  out  of  my  w^ay  for  very  long  distances,  always 
abundantly  rewarded  in  the  end ;  and  never  better  than  recently, 
when  a  run  by  rail  from  Leghorn  to  Florence  gave  me  the  chance 
of  seeing  the  house  of  Michael  Angelo,  an  art-hero  worthy  all 
worship.  Let  it  be  now  my  pleasant  task  to  conduct  the  reader 
over  this  old  mansion,  and,  by  the  aid  of  a  few  woodcutsf, 
endeavour  to  give  a  true  idea  of  its  features  to  those  who  only 
"travel  in  books." 

Some  twenty  years  ago,  when  the  last  descendant  of  the  great 
sculptor  died  in  the  person  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
the  Cavalier  Buonarotti,  the  Florentine  Government  secured  the 
house   known  as  the  "  casa  Buonarotti "  as  public  property.     It 


AT  FLORENCE. 


233 


had  been  in  the  possession  of  the  family  of  Michael  Angelo  nearly 
three  centuries  ;  when  they  failed  the  mansion  was  bought  by  the 
modern  townsmen.  The  house  is  substantially  the  same  as  when 
he  inhabited  it ;  but  not  nearly  so  much  so  as  those  who  put  faith 
in  guide-books  would  be  led  to  imagine.     Thus  the  best  of  them 


Fig.  I20. — House  of  Michael  Angelo. 


informs  us  the  house  is  preserved  precisely  as  he  left  it,  which  is 
simply  not  true.  When  we  speak  of  it  as  substantially  the  same, 
we  allude  to  its  external  general  features  and  the  internal 
arrangement  of  the  rooms,  but  modernisations  appear  in  both  ; 
they  have  been  "  adapted  "  to  the  changes  in  manners  during  the 
long  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  sculptor's  death,  and  hence 
the  house  has  in  a  great  degree  become  a  "  comfortable  modern 

H  H 


residence,"  rather  than  a   mediaeval  home  of  somewhat  gloomy 
security. 

The  external  features  of  the  mansion  may  be  readily  compre- 
hended in  the  sketch  (Fig.  120).  It  is  a  solid  square  of  large 
size,  as  worthy  the  name  of  palazzo  as  any  other  in  Florence.  It 
stands  in  the  Via  Ghibellina,  at  the  corner  of  the  street  known  as 
the  Via  dei  Marmi  Sudici.  The  aspect  of  such  houses  gives  at  once 
an  idea  of  well-arranged  suites  of  rooms.  In  his  old  age  Michael 
must  have  well  appreciated  his  home,  and  it  is  easy  in  going  over 
it  to  realise  the  great  artist  resting  in  his  well-earned  fame.  The 
lowermost  windows  to  the  street  are  guarded,  as  all  are  in  Italian 
towns,  by  strong  external  ironwork,  giving  it  a  somewhat  prison- 
like look.  A  wide  doorway  leads  through  a  passage  to  the  inner 
open  court  of  the  house  ;  a  door  in  the  passage  admits  to  the 
ground-floor  apartments,  now  occupied  by  two  tenants,  one  being 
an  artist.  Beside  the  artist's  door,  to  the  right,  is  the  stair 
leading  to  the  upper  floors.  The  large  range  of  windows  in  these 
floors  are  not  all  rcal^  some  few  are  blanks,  and  the  whole  have 
probably  been  altered  during  the  last  century  from  the  irregular 
series  which  once  covered  the  facade.  The  street  in  which  the 
house  stands  is  a  wide  and  pleasant  one  ;  it  is  on  the  quiet  out- 
skirts of  the  town  ;  the  wall  which  encircles  Florence  is  not  many 
hundred  yards  from  it ;  and  you  see  the  picturesque  hills  around 
the  glorious  old  city  rise  gradually  above  as  you  stand  on  the 
threshold  of  Michael's  door.  The  palace  of  one  of  the  old  nobles 
faces  the  sculptor's  house;  close  beside  it  is  another;  and  the 
narrow  street  opposite,  the  \'^ia  ddhi   I'in/ocheri',  leads  direct   to 


the  great  square  and  church  of  Santa  Croce,  whose  windows  and 
sculptured  walls  may  be  clearly  seen  from  the  same  point  of  view. 
The  most  original  and  unchanged  "  bit "  of  the  house  is  the 
small  court-yard  (Fig.  121).  Here  the  quaint  construction  of  the 
building  is  most  visible;  the  bracketed  gallery,  tall   tower,  and 


l-'iy.  121. — Court-yard. 

angular  passages,  with  their  narrow  windows  and  bold  defiance  of 
symmetry,  carry  the  mind  back  to  the  time  when  the  sculptor 
inhabited  it.  The  feeling  is  aided  by  the  curious  collection  of  frag- 
ments of  antique  sculpture  inserted  in  the  walls.  Michael's  love  for 
Greek  and  Roman  art  was  profound  ;  he  lived  at  a  period  when 
enthusiasm  like  his  might  be  well  indulged,  and  continually  called 


236 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO, 


forth  by  the  discoveries  then  constantly  making  in  Rome.  In  his 
time  the  finest  antiquities  were  exhumed  ;  and  those  we  look  upon 
here  are  such  as  he  could  secure  for  himself.  They  are  very 
varied  in  character  and  quality  ;  but  they  are  valuable  as  showing 
how  catholic  his  tastes  were,  and  how  much  he  respected  all  that 


Fig.  122. — Group  of  Relics. 


time  had  left  us  as  aids  to  understand  the  life  of  past  ages. 
Small  as  the  collection  is,  it  includes  statues,  basst-rcltczn\  funeral 
ctppiy  and  inscriptions ;  as  well  as  a  few  early  Christian  inscrip- 
tions from  the  catacombs,  noting,  in  the  simple  phraseology  of 
the  true  faith,  the  last  resting-places  of  "  the  just  made  perfect." 
An    arched   staircase,    somewhat    steep,    with    a    convenient 


AT  FLORENCE.  237 


handrail  beside  it,  leads  to  the  suite  of  rooms  on  the  first  floor  ; 
these  are  the  rooms  to  which  the  public  are  admitted  every 
Thursday.  They  are  stately  in  their  proportions,  and  communi- 
cate freely  with  each  other.  The  first  contains  a  large  glass  case 
filled  with  antique  fragments,  collected  by  Michael  Angelo,  with 
additions  by  the  Cavalier  Buonarotti,  his  ultimate  representative. 
Fragments  of  sculpture,  specimens  of  Greek  and  Roman  cinerary 
urns,  small  basst-relievi^  and  a  host  of  minor  articles,  are  here  ;  it 
is,  in  fact,  such  a  collection  as  a  man  of  classic  taste  would  desire. 
On  the  walls  are  a  few  sketches,  and  here  is  hung  the  cross-hilted 
sword  worn  by  Michael  himself  (Fig.  122)  ;  the  handle  is  of  steel, 
the  grip  covered  with  plated  wire  to  give  a  firmer  hold  ;  it  is 
a  good  characteristic  relic  of  the  days  when  swords  were  essential, 
as  well  to  indicate  as  to  protect  a  gentleman.  We  pass  from  this 
into  a  capacious  chamber,  and  thence  into  a  long  saloon  at  the 
angle  of  the  house,  lighted  by  two  windows,  between  them  a 
sedent  statue  of  the  sculptor  by  Antonio  Novelli  (Fig.  123).  It  is  a 
good  figure  badly  placed,  with  cross  lights,  or  no  lights  at  all — 
one  of  the  sacrifices  of  art  to  expediency  we  are  often  condemned 
to  feel.  The  walls  and  ceiling  of  this  room  are  panelled,  and  the 
panels  are  pictured  with  scenes  of  the  principal  events  of  the 
sculptor's  life,  by  Cristoforo  Allori,  Beliverti,  Jacopo  da  Empoli, 
and  Matteo  Rosselli.  Smaller  compartments  in  chiaro-osairo 
continue  the  series  of  minor  events  in  the  artist's  history,  and 
occupy  their  place  beneath  the  larger  coloured  pictures.  The 
ceiling  is  panelled  into  fifteen  compartments,  and  here  again 
are   other    delineations  of  the   same  kind.      They  are  generally 


238 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO, 


admirably  done,  and  most  gratifying  for  the  noble  feeling  they 
exhibit  of  modern  art-reverence  towards  its  past  professors. 
English  artists  seem  to  feel  little  or  no  love  for  the  great  who 
have  gone  before ;  and  it  is  rarely  that  they  paint  incidents  in  the 
lives  of  men  of  their  own  profession,  though  many  smaller  scenes 


Iny.  123. — Saloon. 

from  the  pages  of  Pepys  and  Boswell,  or  the  pure  inventions  of 
the  novelist,  are  so  immortalised.  The  continental  painters,  on  the 
contrary,  most  frequently  select  scenes  from  art-biography,  and 
some  of  their  most  successful  works  have  resulted  from  that  source. 
The  number  of  pictures  in  this  chamber,  and  their  power  as  works 


AT  FLORENCE. 


239 


of  historic  value,  show  that  in  the  comparatively  quiet  life  of  an 
artist  there  is  abundant  scope  for  imaginative  genius  to  work  in. 

In  this  room  is  a  large  oil  painting  by  Michael  Angelo  ;  it  is  a 
"  Holy  Family,"  one  of  the  very  few  works  of  its  class  that  can  be 
with  certainty  ascribed  to  him,  exhibiting  his  powers  and  defects 


Fig.  124. — Writing-Closet. 

in  about  equal  degrees.  It  has  his  grandeur  ot  conception,  with 
occasional  faulty  drawing,  and  decidedly  bad  colour ;  the  latter  a 
defect  visible  in  all  his  works.  A  door  on  each  side  of  this  picture 
conducts  to  a  square  chamber,  with  a  richly-panelled  ceiling ;  the 
walls  covered  by  presses  of  oak,  containing  folios  of  sketches  by 
Angelo,  among   them  that  for  his  celebrated  fresco   "The   Last 


Judgment,"  and  various  personal  relics.  In  the  passage  to  this 
chamber  are  placed  two  busts  and  a  boldly  sculptured  arm ; — all 
antique  works  of  the  Roman  era  which  were  found  in  the  studio  of 
Michael  at  Rome,  and  removed  thence  after  his  decease.  The 
most  interesting  memorials  are  kept  in  a  small  closet  in  this 
apartment,  which  was  used  by  the  sculptor  for  writing  in  (Fig.  124). 
A  railed  escritoire  so  completely  crowds  this  sancfufTt  that  it  admits 
but  a  small  seat  in  front.  In  the  escritoire  is  kept  one  of  the 
slippers  he  used  to  wear :  it  was  laced  up  the  front,  is  of  roomy 
proportion,  as  will  be  seen  in  our  cut  (Fig.  122).  Upon  the 
wall  above  are  hung  the  crutch- sticks  he  used  in  walking.  The 
streets  of  Florence  are  flagged  like  those  of  ancient  Italy,  in  large 
irregular  flags  of  stone,  and  in  wet  weather  afford  an  uncertain 
hold ;  consequently  both  these  sticks  have  been  furnished  with 
ferrules  cut  into  points  to  give  greater  security  on  the  slippery 
pavement.  Our  group  of  relics  exhibits  both  these  sticks  (Fig.  122). 
The  other  rooms  contain  some  few  specimens  of  old  furniture, 
and  we  engrave  an  example  of  the  chairs  (Fig.  125).  The  walls 
are  covered  with  sketches  by  Michael  Angelo ;  some  will  at  once 
be  recognised  as  the  originals  from  which  Ottley  copied  the 
examples  in  his  work  on  Italian  Art,  particularly  the  fine  head  of 
"Cleopatra,"  and  a  "Madonna  and  Child."  Here  is  also  the 
altar-piece,  in  low  relief,  after  the  manner  of  Donatello,  in 
which  Angelo  gave  another  conception  of  the  Madonna  ;  and  a 
copy  of  it  in  bronze  attributed  to  John  of  Bologna,  ihe  same 
artist's  bust  of  Michael  Angelo  is  in  the  last  apartment  of  the  suite. 
We  will  leave  the  house,  and  pass  up  the  narrow  street  oppo- 


site  to  the  church  of  Santa  Croce — aptly  and  justly  styled  '*  The 
Westminster  Abbey  of  Florence  " — for  so  short  a  distance  is  it  to 
the  sculptor's  grave.  In  the  nave  of  the  solemn  building,  among 
the  great  and  good  of  the  past,  who  have  made  Florence  famous, 
rests  the  aged  sculptor.     His  tomb  was  erected  some  time  after  his 


Fig.  125. — Specimen  of  Furniture. 


decease ;  it  is  more  ambitious  than  pleasing  (Fig.  126).  It  is  com- 
posed of  coloured  marbles ;  figures  (life-size)  of  Poetry,  Painting, 
and  Architecture,  are  seated  at  the  base  of  a  sarcophagus,  which  is 
surmounted  by  Lorenzi's  bust  of  Michael  Angelo.  As  if  to  afford 
a  foil  to  a  questionable  work  by  an  unquestionably  worse  one,  the 
wall    above  and  around  it  has  been  painted  with  drapery,  and 

I  I 


242 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MICHAEL  ANGELO, 


angels  upholding  it,  in  the  worst  style  of  fresco.  This  addition  we 
have  felt  justified  in  omitting  from  our  cut.  The  great  ones  of 
the  earth,  who  have  nothing  but  birth  or  title  to  be  remembered 
by,  may  require  elaborate  monuments  to  secure  them  from 
oblivion ;  Genius  asks  but  a  plain  stone,  where  the  living  heart 


riy.  120. — The  Tomb. 


of  a  true  worshipper  may  beat  more  quickly  with  thoughtful  love 
towards  the  clay  beneath. 

In  rambling  through  the  pleasant  streets  of  Florence,  en- 
countering on  all  sides  the  finest  art-workmanship  of  its  palmiest 
days,  we  constantly  feel  the  spiritual  presence  of  Michael  and 
his  compeers.     Rome  itself  does  not  call  forth  greater  memories. 


You  gaze  admiringly  upon  works  of  the  widest  renown,  belonging 
to  the  best  periods  of  art,  and  which  have  often  been  the  very 
origin  of  new  phases  in  its  practice.  You  study  them  as  Angelo 
did,  and  with  him  for  your  critical  guide — for  he  was  no  niggard 
in  his  praises  of  fellow-artists,  if  these  laudations  were  fairly 
earned.  Many  anecdotes  of  his  impulsive  ardour  are  on  record  ; 
and  he  often  spoke  to  a  life-like  statue  as  if  it  really  lived.  Thus 
to  Donatello's  '*  St.  George  "  he  cried,  "  March !  "  after  he  had  been 
struck  by  its  grand  military  bearing.  This  and  other  noble  works 
are  still  in  the  niches  where  he  contemplated  them,  and  unpro- 
tected by  aught  but  the  reverence  of  the  Florentine  people.  The 
grand  old  city  is  freely  adorned  with  priceless  sculpture,  part  of 
the  art-history  of  the  world  ;  and  all  is  free  to  the  touch  of  the 
commonest  hand,  yet  no  instance  of  mischief  done  to  any  is  on 
record.  The  natives  have  been  so  familiar  with  these  works  from 
childhood,  that  they  are  as  household  gods  to  them.  Would  that 
this  reverence  was  as  visible  elsewhere,  and  iconoclasm  as  little 
known  as  in  the  ducal  city  of  Florence !  Our  fellow-countrymen 
might  often  learn  lessons  of  wisdom,  good  sense,  and  right  feeling, 
with  reference  to  art-works,  from  the  conduct  of  the  humble 
classes  of  foreigners,  upon  whom  we  are  too  apt  to  look  down. 


RAFFAELLE   IN   ROME. 


E  consecrate  the  memory  of  great  men,  and  when  the 
master-spirit  has  flown  to  Him  who  gave  it,  is  it  not 
pardonable — nay,  laudable — that  we  treat  reverently  the 
relics  of  their  sojourn  here — that  we  make  pilgrimages  to  the 
homes  they  once  inhabited — that  we  endeavour,  as  best  we  may, 
to  call  up  to  the  mind's  eye  the  very  habit  and  manner  of  the 
great  souls  long  departed,  and  let  the  mind  linger  over  their 
earthly  haunts  as  if  awaiting  their  presence  again  to  revivify  the 
scenes  made  sacred  to  us  by  such  connection  ?  There  is,  perhaps, 
no  spot  more  abounding  with  associations  of  all  kinds,  to  interest 
men  of  every  civilised  country,  and  induce  many  hundred 
pilgrimages,  than  those  few  miles  of  ground  upon  which  stands 
Rome,  that  imperial  ruin  in  a  papal  garb  : — 

"  We  cannot  tread  upon  it  but  we  set 
Our  foot  upon  some  reverent  history." 

The  mind  is  here  overwhelmed  by  the  crowding  memories  of  the 
great  events  of  bygone  time ;  "  centuries  look  down  upon  us " 
from   the  ruined  Colosseum — from  the  ivy-clad  masses  of  wall 


248  RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 

where  once  stood  the  palace  of  the  emperors  of  the  world.  These 
arches  record  their  victories  and  their  triumphs.  This  dirty,  ill- 
enclosed  space,  now  named  from  the  cows  that  rest  upon  it  after 
dragging  the  rude  carts  of  the  peasantry  into  Rome,  was  once  the 
Forum — the  very  focus  of  all  that  was  great  in  the  whole  history 
of  the  old  world  : — 

"  Still  the  eloquent  air  breathes — bums  with  Cicero." 

On  this  small  patch  of  ground  occurred  events  which  form  the 
most  cherished  memorials  of  history.  Around  us  on  all  sides  are 
the  crumbling  mementoes  of  the  great  of  old,  whose  presence 
stirred  the  nations.  The  very  fragments — the  shadows  of  a  shade 
— of  their  past  greatness  have  been  sufficient  to  revivify  the 
human  mind  after  many  ages  of  mental  darkness  ;  and  the  long- 
buried  works  of  the  old  Romans,  in  the  palmy  days  of  Michael 
Angelo  and  RafFaelle,  quickened  the  genius  of  their  great  minds, 
guided  their  thoughts  aright,  and  ultimately  led  to  the  purity  and 
nobility  of  modern  art. 

The  great  revival  of  learning  in  the  fifteenth  century  led  the 
student  back  from  the  legendary  history  of  the  middle  ages  to  the 
more  ennobling  study  of  the  classic  era;  and  this  acquaintance 
with  the  acts  of  the  great  led  to  the  desire  to  possess  more 
tangible  relics  of  their  period.  Hence  coins  and  medals  were 
sought  after,  not  merely  as  works  by  ancient  hands,  but  as 
authentic  records  of  their  history,  rendered  the  more  valuable  by 
their  autograph  character.  Inscriptions  were  sought  for  the  same 
reasons.     Statues  were  untombed,  and  gazed  at  in  wonder,  for  the 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME.  249 

truth  and  beauty  of  their  proportions,  as  contrasted  with  the  gaunt 
conventionalities  of  their  own  schools  of  sculpture.  Men  regarded 
these  works  as  the  productions  of  superior  beings ;  but  such 
contemplation  resulted  in  elevating  the  minds  of  the  students,  and 
slowly,  but  surely,  the  long-lost  arts  broke  in  full  radiance  from 
the  clouds  which  had  so  long  obscured  them. 

It  was  in  these  great  days  of  resuscitation  that  RafFaelle  lived. 
The  popes  and  the  nobles  vied  with  each  other  in  obtaining  the 
best  works  of  ancient  art,  and  liberally  rewarded  the  discoverers.* 
Lorenzo  de  Medici,  well  distinguished  as  "  the  Magnificent,"  made 
his  palace  at  Florence  a  museum  of  art,  and  liberally  gave  free 
access  to  all  students  who  chose  to  come  there.  Michael  Angelo 
was  of  the  number  who  studied  in  the  beautiful  garden  where 
the  sculpture  was  located,  and  the  great  duke  often  spoke 
encouragingly  to  the  young  lad  who  laboured  there  so  thought- 
fully and  so  well.  Words  led  to  deeds,  and  it  was  not  long 
afterwards  that  the  duke  adopted  Michael  as  his  protegCy  gave  him 
a  room  in  his  palace,  and  was  the  friend  of  him  and  his  family. 


*  Felice  de  Fredis,  who  discovered  in  1508  the  celebrated  group,  the  Laocoon,  in  the 
Baths  of  Titus,  had  bestowed  on  him  in  consequence,  by  the  Pope  Julius  II.,  the  lucrative 
gift  of  the  tolls  and  customs  received  at  the  Gate  of  St.  John  Lateran— an  ample  fortune  in 
itself.  Michael  Angelo,  who  was  in  Rome  at  the  time,  describes  the  excitement  the  event 
caused.  By  a  happy  omen  had  his  godfathers  named  him  Felice.  The  gift  was  so  large  that 
the  Church  of  St.  John  importuned  the  succeeding  pope  to  compound  with  him  for  its 
restoration ;  but  he  only  gave  it  up  for  the  noble  place  of  Apostolic  Sccretar)-,  which  he 
enjoyed  until  his  death  in  1529.  He  lies  buried  in  the  left  transept  of  the  Church  of  the  Ara 
Cceli.  The  inscription  on  his  grave-slab  is  nearly  obliterated.  Is  there  no  kind  hand  in 
Rome,  the  city  of  sculptors,  to  recut  the  few  lines  recording  the  name  of  one  who  did  the 
world  of  art  much  service  ? 

K  K 


250 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 


death  only  severing  the  tie.     Many  other  artists  had  to  thank  the 

liberal  duke  for  the    use  of  his  art-treasures,  and  RafFaelle  was 

among    the    number.      The   Cardinal  Bembo,  one   of  the    most 

enlightened    men  of    that    day,   rivalled  the    hospitality  of    the 

Medici,    and  received   Raffaelle   into  his  palace  as  an  honoured 

guest ; — and  are  not  the  names  of  both  noble  men  more  nobly 

immortalised  by  such  patronage  ? 

The  early  life  of  RafFaelle  was  happily  circumstanced.      His 

father  was  himself  an  artist,  who  saw  his  son's  great  genius,  and 

fostered  it  from  the  birth.     The  child's  early  life  was  passed  in  a 

lovely  home,  rendered  cheerful  by  the  practice  of  refined  pleasures, 

the  only  labour  known  there  being  the  cheerful  toil  that  awaits  the       ! 

student  of  art.       Of  pleasant  manners  and  agreeable  looks,  the 

boy-artist  made  friends  everywhere,  and  the  record  of  his  whole 

life  is  a  narration  of  the  accession  of  new  friends.     In  the  Italian 

cities  where  he  went  for  study  he  made  warm  friendships  with  the       i 

best  and  greatest  in  art  and  literature.     It  rarely  falls  to  the  lot 

of  a  biographer  to  narrate  a  life  of  such  unvarying  happiness  as       ; 

that  of  Raffaelle.      Pleasant  and  profitable  as  this  genial  study       j 

and   companionship  would   naturally  be   to   the   young   painter, 

whose  devotion  to  art  never  relaxed,  and  whose  patrons  increased 

with  his  years,  greater  triumphs  awaited  him  in  the  imperial  city       | 

itself;    and  hither,  in    1508,  he  travelled  at  the  request  of  Pope       1 

I 
Julius  II.,   to  decorate  the   halls  of  the  Vatican,    the   invitation 

having  come  through  his  uncle  Bramantc,  the  great    architect, 

who  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  that   pontiff.      The  artist  was  now 

twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  liad  already  given  evidence  of  his 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 


251 


powers ;  he  had  the  fullest  scope  for  their  exertion,  and  the 
remainder  of  his  too  short  life  was  devoted  to  the  glory  of  the 
church  and  its  head  in  Rome. 


fitr.  127. — J^al'tadle's  First  Residence,  Rome. 

In  the  labyrinth  of  short  streets  that  lead  to  the  heart  of  the 
old  city,  opposite  Hadrian's  Bridge,  is  situated  the  house  in  which 
Raffaelle  first  resided  (Fig.  127}.     It  is  in  a  narrow  street,  known 


252  RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 

as  the  Via  Coronari ;  the  tall  houses  close  it  in,  so  that  the  sun  never 
reaches  the  lower  stories — a  valuable  arrangement  where  shade  is 
grateful,  but  which  gives  a  gloomy  and  stifling  look  to  Italian 
towns.  The  house  is  featureless,  and  might  not  be  recognised  but 
for  the  nearly  decayed  chtaro-oscuro  portrait  of  its  great  tenant, 
which  was  painted  by  Carlo  Maratti  in  1705,  when  it  was  renovated 
and  partly  rebuilt.  The  interest  of  this  house,  in  connection  with 
RafFaelle,  did  not  cease  with  his  life  :  it  was  ceded  at  his  wish  to 
the  Church  of  St.  Maria  della  Rotonda,  after  his  death,  by  his 
executor,  Baldassare  de  Pescia,  the  Papal  Secretary,  that  a  chapel 
might  be  endowed  to  the  honour  of  the  Virgin  in  that  venerable 
building,  where  prayers  should  be  said  for  the  repose  of  his  soul. 
At  that  time  the  house  produced  a  rent  of  seventy  crowns  per 
annum.  In  the  year  1581,  at  the  desire  of  Siticella,  arch-priest  of 
the  Pantheon,  Gregory  XIII.  united  the  property  to  the  revenue 
of  his  office;  and  in  the  year  1705,  the  arch-priest  of  that  time 
mortgaged  the  house  to  pay  for  the  repairs  noted  above.  It  now 
produces  a  very  small  surplus,  and  that  is  said  not  to  be  applied  to 
the  purposes  indicated  in  the  will. 

The  chief  memorials  of  Raffaelle's  residence  in  Rome  are  the 
immortal  works  which  still  decorate  the  papal  palace  of  the 
Vatican.  The  hall  called  della  Scgnatura  was  first  decorated  by 
him  with  the  great  compositions  known  as  "  The  Dispute  of  the 
Sacrament,"  "The  School  of  Athens,"  "The  Parnassus,"  and 
"  Jurisprudence."  They  occupied  him  nearly  three  years.  Toward 
the  end  of  that  period  the  sight  of  Michael  Angelo's  grand  con- 
ceptions in  the  Sistine  Chapel  are  believed  to  have  influenced  the 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME.  253 

young  painter  to  a  greater  elevation  in  the  treatment  of  his  works. 
The  sybils  and  prophets  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Alaria  della  Pace, 
as  well  as  the  painting  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Augustin,  executed  about  this  time,  are  cited  as  proofs  of  this 
influence.  On  the  walls  of  the  palace  of  Agostino  Chigi  he  had 
painted  his  famous  "  Galatsea,"  and  had  achieved  for  himself  a 
fixed  and  honourable  position  in  Rome,  surrounded  by  friends  of 
the  highest  and  most  influential  kind,  and  some  few  scholars 
who  aided  his  labours. 

In  1 5 1 2  the  second  hall  of  the  Vatican  was  commenced  ;  in  the 
February  of  the  following  year  the  pope  died.  Julius  was  more  of 
a  soldier  than  a  churchman ;  and  is  recorded  to  have  told  Michael 
Angelo  to  place  a  sword  rather  than  a  book  in  the  hand  of  the 
bronze  statue  he  destined  to  commemorate  him.  Leo  X.  had 
more  refined  taste,  and  became  celebrated  as  a  patron  of  the 
arts.  To  narrate  all  Raffaelle's  labours  for  this  pontiff  would  be 
to  give  a  list  of  renowned  works,  familiar  to  the  whole  world 
for  their  lessons  of  beauty,  cultivated  by  the  highest  tech- 
nicalities of  art.  Suflice  it  to  say  that  the  art-labours  of  the 
Vatican  never  ceased,  and  when  Bramante  died  Raifaelle  was 
appointed  his  successor.  His  first  architectural  work  was  the  rows 
of  galleries  which  surround  the  court-yard  of  the  Vatican,  the 
foundations  of  which  had  only  been  laid  by  his  uncle  Bramante. 
These  triple  arcades  rising  above  each  other,  and  commanding 
magnificent  views  over  Rome,  were  richly  decorated  by  Raffaelle 
with  designs  which  startled  the  world  by  their  novelty  and 
captivated    by   their    beauty.      Founded   on    the   antique   mural 


254  RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 


decorations  then  recently  discovered  in  the  Baths  of  Titus,  the 
genius  of  the  painter  adopted  their  leading  ideas,  infusing  the 
composition  with  his  own  fancy  and  grace,  and  thus  gave  a  new 
decorative  art  to  the  world.  RafFaelle  was  ever  alive  to  the 
progress  of  art,  and  its  interests  were  consulted  by  him  in  the 
largest  way.  He  fostered  the  genius  ot  Marc  Antonio  Raimondi, 
the  engraver,  at  a  period  when  the  graphic  art  was  in  its  infancy  ; 
in  the  midst  of  his  laborious  occupations  he  found  time 
to  design  for  him  subjects  for  his  burin^  and  to  superintend  their 
execution.  But  more  than  all,  he  defrayed  the  whole  expenses 
of  these  engravings  himself,  taking  Marc  Antonio  under  his 
protection  until  the  new  art  had  established  itself  in  popular 
favour,  and  could  be  followed  as  a  lucrative  profession.  To 
RafFaelle,  therefore,  the  art  of  engraving  and  the  traders  in 
prints  owe  a  deep  debt.* 

The  early  artists  were  men  of  multifarious  accomplishments  ; 
they  were  not  painters  only.  We  have  record  of  their  power  in 
many  branches,  and  examples  of  their  versatility  still  remain  to  us  ; 
hence  we  need  feel  no  surprise  that  the  painter  RafFaelle  was 
installed   to   the  post  of  papal   architect.      Michael  Angelo  also 


*  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  Albert  Diircr  was  really  the  chief  populariser  of  the 
art.  His  prints  on  copper  and  wood  (the  latter  particularly)  had  circulated  over  Northern 
Europe,  and  were  well  known  in  Venice.  RalTaclIc  saw  at  once  the  latent  jiowcr  by  means 
of  which  he  mij^lit  |)ropa(,'atc  and  perpetuate  his  own  de>igns,  and  at  once  cncouraj;cd  the 
labours  of  Marc  Antonio.  This  enj,'ravcr  had  copied  in  Venice  many  of  Diirer's  engravings 
to  his  detriment,  and  Diirer  had  complained  to  the  magistracy  for  redress.  It  is  to  Diircr  we 
owe  the  discovery  of  etching  and  corroding  a  plate  by  aciil,  one  of  the  greatest  boons  to  the 
engraver,  and  an  enormous  saving  of  labour. 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME,     ,.  .         o» 


vat 

^"^^ggi^. 

practised  architecture,  as  well  as  sculpture  and  painting ;  but  more 
than  this,  he  fortified  the  city  of  Florence,  and  successfully 
superintended  its  military  defence  during  six  months,  when  it  was 
attacked  by  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  1529.  Benvenuto  Cellini  has 
also  left  record  of  his  fighting  powers,  w^hen  he  served  in  the  siege 
of  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  in  1528.  Albert  Diirer  introduced  the 
Italian  style  of  fortification  to  his  native  city  of  Niirnberg,  and 
wrote  a  treatise  on  the  art ;  he  was  also  painter,  sculptor, 
designer,  and  engraver  on  wood,  copper,  and  stone.  Leonardo  da 
Vinci  excelled  in  the  arts,  and  added  thereto  such  sound 
philosophical  views  as  to  have  been  greatly  in  advance  of  his  age ; 
indeed,  his  research  in  optical  science  has  led  to  his  being 
considered  the  father  of  the  modern  daguerreotype  and  photo- 
graphy, inasmuch  as  he  propounded  the  possibility  of  securing 
images  by  the  action  of  light  alone. 

Of  Rafifaelle's  architectural  powers  Rome  has  varied  examples. 
The  principal  are  at  the  Vatican  and  St.  Peter's,  the  construction 
of  which  he  superintended  during  the  rest  of  his  brief  life.  On  the 
authority  of  Vasari  we  may  attribute  to  him  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  Roman  palazzi,  the  Villa  Madama.  The  Caffarelli 
Palace  is  also  known  to  be  his  design,*  as  well  as  the  very 
beautiful  funeral  chapel  for  his  friend  and  early  patron  Agostino 
Chigi,  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  del  Popolo.  Among  the 
quiet  gardens  of  the  Celian  Hill  is  one  of  his  most  picturesque 


*  It  is  opposite  the  Church  of  St.  Andrea  della  Valle,  and  is  now  called  the  Palazzo 
Vidoni ;  the  upper  portion  is  not  Raffaelk's  work. 


2s6 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 


works,  the  little  Church  of  Santa  Maria  in  Navicella,  an  edifice 
abounding  with  the  most  interesting  artistic  associations.  It 
stands  on  the  site  of  the  house  of  one  of  the  earliest  Christian 
saints,  St.  Cyiac,  and  was  built  by  Leo  X.  entirely  from  Raffaelle's 
design,  with  the  exception  of  the  simple  and  elegant  little  portico, 
which  is  by  Michael  Angelo.     The  paintings  within  are  by  Raf- 


I'ig.  128. — Tiic  Cluircli  of  St.  Alalia  in  isavicella. 


faelle's  favourite  scholars,  Julio  Romano  and  Pierino  della  Vaga. 
This  interesting  church  takes  its  distinguishing  name  from  the 
marble  galley  placed  on  a  pedestal  in  front  of  the  portico,  by 
Pope  Teo  X.,  in  whose  time  it  was  discovered.  It  is  a  curious 
work  of  the  Roman  era,  and  is  seen  in  our  cut  with  other  classic 
fragments  placed  beside  it  (Fig.  128). 

Raffaclle  had  now  achieved  so  high  a  position  in  Rome,  and 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME.  257 


was  so  overwhelmed  with  commissions,  that  his  scholars  and 
assistants  increased  greatly.  But  for  their  aid  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  him  to  have  executed  so  large  a  number  of  works. 
It  became  his  practice  to  design,  superintend,  and  finish  only ; 
but  the  labour  of  carrying  out  his  works  was  left  to  his  scholars, 
who  all  became  men  of  mark.  The  chief  was  Julio  Romano,  who 
painted  a  large  portion  of  the  Vatican.  The  Loggie  was  the 
work  of  many  hands ;  the  figures,  the  flowers,  the  scrolls,  and  the 
ornament,  were  all  apportioned  to  the  facile  and  ready  powers  of 
the  army  of  artists  the  "  divine  master"  had  at  command.  It  is 
recorded  that  he  had  a  retinue  of  some  fifty  who  were  thus 
employed;  these  formed  his  train  in  public,  so  that  "he  appeared 
like  a  prince  rather  than  an  artist;"  the  fascination  of  his 
manners  led  to  affection  for  himself  irrespective  of  his  genius. 

But  death  came  to  carry  the  artist  away  in  the  midst  of  his 
triumph,  ere  he  had  entirely  reaped  the  full  harvest  of  his  fame, 
leaving  the  world  greatly  the  loser.  Raffaelle,  now  a  wealthy 
man,  and  living  like  a  noble,  had  purchased  for  himself  a  mansion 
worthy  of  a  nobleman  born.  His  affianced  bride,  the  niece  of 
Cardinal  Bibiena,  died  in  15 18,  and  was  buried  in  the  Pantheon; 
and  in  April,  1520,  the  painter  was  laid  in  the  same  edifice  (Fig. 
129).  It  was  less  than  twelve  years  of  thought  and  action  that 
had  sufficed  him  to  found  immortal  renown  in  Rome,  and  leave 
that  city  the  bequest  of  the  most  glorious  art-treasures  in  the 
world.  His  life  had  indeed  been  sacrificed  to  his  eagerness  to 
serve  the  pope;  harassed  by  a  multiplicity  of  engagements, 
Raffaelle  had  hurried    from   the  Farnesina,    the   palace  of    the 

L   L 


2S8 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 


wealthy  banker  Chigi,  which  he  was  engaged  to  decorate,  to 
consult  with  the  pope  about  his  works  at  the  Vatican.  He  had 
overheated  himself  with  running  this  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  he  felt 
a  sudden  chill  as  he  stood  in  the  cold  unfinished  building.  He 
went  to  his  palace  (a  short  distance  only),  and  in  the  course  of  a 
few  days  died  there  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-seven,  April  7th,  1520. 


l-iy.  129. — Tlie  l^aiiiheoii,  Kuine. 


The  last  homo  of  Raffaelle  is  still  pointed  out  in  Rome 
(Fig.  130].  It  stands  in  the  district  termed  the  Trastavere,  in  the 
small  square  midway  from  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  and  St.  Peter's. 
It  occupies  one  side  of  this  square,  and  is  an  imposing  structure. 
The  architects  were  Bramante  and  Baldassare  Peruzzi.  It  is  now 
known  as  the  Palazzo  dcgli  Convertiti,  and  devoted  to  the  reception 
of  converted  heretics.     Here  his  body  lay  in  state  in  front  of  his 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 


259 


unfinished  picture  of  the  "  Transfiguration,"*  his  greatest,  as  it 
was  his  last,  work.  There  was  a  grandeur  in  such  a  death — a 
glory  in  such  a  death-chamber,  "  which  time  has  not  yet  effaced 
from  the  memory  of  man.      It  was  one  of  those  impromptus  of  the 


Fig.  130.— Raffaelle's  Last  Residence,  Rome. 

eloquence  of  things  which  owed  its  effects  to  a  cause  so  much  the 
more  active  and  fruitful,  because  it  was  natural  and  not  arranged."! 

"  And  when  all  beheld 

Him,  where  he  lay,  how  changed  from  yesterday — 


*  The  picture  was  afterwards  finished  by  his  pupil  Julio  Romano.  It  had  been  ordered 
by  the  Cardinal  Medici  for  Narbonne,  but  was  placed  over  the  high  altar  of  the  Church  of 
St.  Pietro  in  Martorio,  at  Rome.  It  was  then  removed  to  the  Vatican,  from  whence  it  was 
carried  by  Napoleon  to  Paris,  but  was  restored  to  Rome  at  his  fall. 

t  Quatremere  de  Quincy. 


Him  in  that  hour  cut  off,  and  at  his  head 

His  last  great  work  ;  when,  entering  in,  they  looked 

Now  on  the  dead,  then  on  the  master-piece  ; 

Now  on  his  face,  lifeless  and  colourless. 

Then  on  those  forms  divine  that  lived  and  breathed. 

And  would  live  on  for  ages — all  were  moved  ; 

And  sighs  burst  forth,  and  loudest  lamentation."  ♦ 

All  Rome  mourned  the  death  of  the  great  painter.  The  pope 
wept  bitter  tears ;  his  loss  was  indeed  great,  for  the  spirit  that 
could  make  his  pontificate  glorious  had  departed,  and  left  none  to 
fill  the  void.  "  Rome  seems  no  longer  Rome  since  my  poor 
Raffaelle  is  gone,"  writes  CastigUone  to  the  marchioness  his 
mother.  His  funeral  cortege  included  in  its  ranks  the  greatest  men 
in  station,  and  the  most  talented  in  art  and  literature.  These, 
with  his  friends  and  pupils,  marched  amid  the  lamentations  of  the 
whole  city  to  the  Pantheon,  and  reverently  laid  the  painter  beside 
the  altar  he  had  endowed. 

Rome — perhaps  the  world — possesses  no  building  of  more 
interest  than  this.  The  ancients  described  it  with  admiration 
eighteen  centuries  ago,  and  it  still  remains  the  best  preserved 
monument  of  modern  Rome. 

"Relic  of  nobler  days,  and  noblest  arts! 
Despoil'd,  yet  perfect,  with  thy  circle  spreads 
A  holiness  appealing  to  all  hearts — 
To  art  a  model ;  and  to  him  who  treads 
Rome  for  tlie  sake  of  ages,  Glory  shctls 
Her  light  tlirough  thy  sole  aperture ;  to  those 
Who  worsliip,  litre  arc  allars  for  their  lieads  ; 


•  Rogers's  "  Italy." 


And  they  who  feel  for  genius  may  repose 

Their  eyes  on  honour'd  forms,  whose  busts  around  them  close."* 

Let  us  enter   this   noble   relic  of  the   past,  sacred   with   the 
associations  of  ages.     Over  the  portico  is  an  inscription,  recording 


Fig.  131.— Raffaelle's  Chapel. 

its  erection  by  Agrippa  in  his  third  consulate  (B.C.  25) ;  the  pillars 
of  this  "  more  than  faultless"  portico  are  Corinthian  columns  of 
oriental  granite.     The  bronze  doors  arc  antique  ;  so  is  the  open 


262  RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 

grating  above  them.  You  pass  them,  and  the  interior  strikes  you 
at  once  by  its  simple  grandeur.  It  is  a  rotunda  supporting  a 
dome,  the  only  light  being  received  through  the  circular  opening 
in  its  centre.  The  rain  falls  freely  upon  the  floor ;  and  in  the 
pavement  may  be  noted  the  star-shaped  apertures  by  which  it 
may  descend  to  the  drains  beneath.  No  antique  building  exists  for 
modern  uses  so  unaltered  as  this.*  In  the  walls  are  seven  large 
niches,  and  between  them  are  eight  cedicula,  or  shrines  which  have 
been  converted  into  altars.  Opposite  the  entrance,  to  the  left  of 
the  centre,  the  visitor  will  notice  an  altar,  in  front  of  which  hangs 
a  triple  light,  supported  by  a  silver  monogram  of  the  Virgin  ; 
the  same  monogram  is  above  the  altar  (Fig.  131).  It  is  that 
founded  by  Raffaelle,  for  the  perpetual  support  of  which  he  gave 
the  house  which  forms  the  first  of  our  engravings.  The  figure  of  the 
Virgin  and  Child,  now  known  as  "  La  Madonna  del  Sasso,"  was 
sculptured  by  his  pupil  Lorenzo  Lotti.  Under  this  altar  the  body 
of  Raffaelle  was  laid,  and  upon  a  lower  panel  of  marble  to  the  left 
of  it  is  the  epitaph  to  the  painter  written  by  Cardinal  Bembo.  On 
the  opposite  side  is  the  epitaph  to  Annibale  Caracci ;  and  in  other 


♦  "Though  plundered  of  all  its  brass,  except  the  ring  which  was  necessary  to  prcscive 
the  aperture  above — though  exposed  to  repeated  fire — thougii  sometimes  flooded  by  the  river, 
and  always  open  to  the  rain— no  monument  of  equal  antiquity  is  so  well  preser\ed  as  this 
rotunda.  It  passed  with  little  alteration  from  the  pagan  into  the  present  worship ;  and  so 
convenient  were  its  niches  for  the  Christian  altars,  that  Michael  Angelo,  ever  studious  of 
ancient  beauty,  introduced  their  design  as  a  model  in  tiic  Catholic  Church." — P'orsyth's 
Italy.  The  bronze  here  alluded  to,  wliich  once  covered  the  intciior  of  the  dome,  was  stripped 
off  by  Pope  Urban  VIII.,  and  moulded  into  the  great  canopy  now  over  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter 
in  Rome  ;  the  rest  was  used  for  cannon,  which  were  placed  on  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo. 
Vcnuti  has  computed  its  weiglit  at  450,250 lbs. 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME.  263 

parts  of  the  building  are  buried  Raffaelle's  betrothed  wife,  and  his 
scholars,  Giouanni  da  Udine  and  Perino  della  Vaga.  Baldassare 
Peruzzi,  one  of  the  architects  of  Raffaelle's  palace,  also  lies  here  ; 
as  well  as  Taddeo  Zuccari,  and  other  eminent  painters.  Its  most 
modern  artistic  monument  is  Thorwaldsen's  bust  to  Cardinal 
Gonsalvi.  Where  can  the  art-pilgrim  pay  a  more  soul-inspiriting 
visit  than  to  this 

" sanctuary  and  home 

Of  art  and  piety  ?  " 

Carlo  Maratti  desired  to  place  a  more  striking  memorial  of 
Raffaelle's  resting  place  than  the  simple  inscription,  and 
accordingly,  in  the  year  1674,  a  marble  bust  of  the  painter, 
executed  by  Paolo  Nardini,  was  placed  in  one  of  the  oval  niches 
on  each  side  of  the  chapel.  The  epitaph  to  Maria  Bibiena 
(Raffaelle's  betrothed)  was  removed  to  make  way  for  Maratti's 
new  inscription ;  and  it  was  currently  believed  that  the  skull  of 
Raffaelle  was  removed ;  at  least  such  was  the  history  given  of  a 
skull  shown  as  the  painter's,  religiously  preserved  by  the  Academy 
of  St.  Luke,  and  descanted  on  by  phrenologists  as  indicative  of 
all  the  qualities  which  "  the  divine  painter"  possessed.  But 
scepticism  played  its  part :  doubts  of  the  truth  of  this  story  led 
to  doubts  of  Vasari's  statement  respecting  the  exact  locality  of 
Raffaelle's  tomb.  Matters  were  brought  to  a  final  issue  by  the 
discovery  of  a  document  proving  this  skull  to  be  that  of  Don 
Desiderio  de  Adjutorio,  founder  of  the  society  called  the  Virtuosi, 
in  1542.  Thereupon,  this  society  demanded  the  head  of  its  founder 
from  the  Academy  of  St.  Luke  ;  but  they  would  neither  abandon 


that  nor  the  illusion  that  they  possessed  the  veritable  skull  of 
the  great  artist.  Arguments  ran  high,  and  it  was  at  length 
determined  to  settle  the  question  by  an  examination  of  the  spot, 
which  took  place  on  the  13th  of  September,  1833,  in  the  presence 
of  the  Academies  of  St.  Luke  and  of  Archaeology,  the  commission 
of  the  fine  arts  (including  Overbeck  and  others),  the  members  of 
the  Virtuosi,  the  governor  of  Rome  (Monsignor  Grimaldi),  and  the 
Cardinal  Zurla,  the  representative  of  the  pope. 

The  result  will  be  best  given  in  the  words  of  an  eye-witness. 
Signer  Nibby  (one  of  the  commission  of  antiquities  and  fine  arts), 
who  thus  described  the  whole  to  M.  Quatremere  de  Quincy,  the 
biographer  of  Raffaelle : — '*  The  operations  were  conducted  on 
such  a  principle  of  exact  method  as  to  be  almost  chargeable 
with  over-nicety.  After  various  ineffectual  attempts  in  other 
directions,  we  at  length  began  to  dig  under  the  altar  of  the  Virgin 
itself,  and,  taking  as  a  guide  the  indications  furnished  by  Vasari, 
we  at  length  came  to  some  masonry  of  the  length  of  a  man's  body. 
The  labourers  raised  the  stone  with  the  utmost  care,  and  having 
dug  within  for  about  a  foot  and  a  half  came  to  a  void  space.  You 
can  hardly  conceive  the  enthusiasm  of  us  all,  when  by  a  final 
effort  the  workmen  exhibited  to  our  view  the  remains  of  a  coffin 
with  an  entire  skeleton  in  it,  lying  thus  as  originally  placed,  and 
thinly  covered  with  damp  dust.  We  saw  at  once  quite  clearly  that 
the  tomb  had  never  been  opened,  and  it  thus  became  manifest 
that  the  skull  possessed  by  the  Academy  of  St.  Luke  was  not  that 
of  Raffaelle.  Our  first  care  was  by  gentle  degrees  to  remove  from 
the   body  the   dust   which    covered    it,  and  which  we  religiously 


RAFFAELLE  IN  ROME. 


265 


collected,  with  the  purpose  ot  placing  in  it  a  new  sarcophagus. 
Amongst  it  we  found,  in  tolerable  preservation,  pieces  of  th(; 
coffin,  which  was  made  of  deal,  fragments  of  a  painting  which 
had  ornamented  the  lid,  several  bits  of  Tiber  clay  formations  from 
the  water  of  the  river,  which  had  penetrated  into  the  coffin  by 
infiltration,*  an  iron  sfclldfa,  a  sort  of  spur  with  which  Raffaellc 
had  been  decorated  by  Leo  X.,  several  fihiihr,  and  a  number  of 


Fig.  132. — The  Grave  of  Rafiaelle. 

metal  aiielHy  portions  of  his  dress."  These  small  rings  had 
fastened  the  shroud ;  several  were  retained  by  the  sculptor  Fabris, 
who  also  took  casts  of  the  head  and  hand,  and  Camuccini  took 


*  This  will  be  understood  when  we  remember  that  the  Tiber  has  inundated  this  lower 
part  of  Rome  several  times.  On  the  external  wall  of  the  adjoining  Church  of  Santa  Maria 
sopra  Minerva,  are  the  marks  of  the  height  to  which  the  waters  rose,  and  which  is  five  feet 
above  the  pavement  level. 

M  M 


266  RAFFAELLE  IX  ROME. 

views  of  the  tomb  and  its  precious  contents.     From  one  of  these 
our  cut  is  copied. 

On  the  following  day  the  body  was  further  examined  by 
professional  men ;  the  skeleton  was  found  to  measure  five  feet 
seven  inches  ;  the  narrowness  of  the  coffin  indicated  a  slender  and 
delicate  frame.  This  accords  with  the  contemporary  accounts, 
which  say  he  *'  was  of  a  refined  and  delicate  constitution ;  his 
frame  was  all  spirit ;  his  physical  strength  so  limited  that  it 
was  a  wonder  he  existed  so  long  as  he  did."  The  investigation 
completed,  the  body  was  exhibited  to  the  public  from  the  20th  to 
the  24th,  and  then  was  again  placed  in  a  new  coffin  of  lead,  and 
that  in  a  marble  sarcophagus  presented  by  the  pope,  and  taken 
from  the  antiquities  in  the  Museum  of  the  Vatican.  A  solemn 
mass  was  then  announced  for  the  evening  of  the  i8th  of  October. 
The  Pantheon  was  illuminated,  as  for  a  funeral ;  **  the  sarcophagus, 
with  its  contents,  was  placed  in  exactly  the  same  spot  whence  the 
remains  had  been  taken.  The  presidents  of  the  various  academies 
were  present,  with  the  Cavalier  Fabris  at  their  head.  Each  bore 
a  brick,  which  he  inserted  in  ,the  brickwork  with  which  the 
sepulchre  was  walled  in."  And  so  the  painter  awaits  "  the 
resurrection  of  the  just,"  and  the  fellowship  of  saints  and  angels, 
of  which  his  inspired  pencil  has  given  us  the  highest  realisation 
on  earth.  -.rss^-— -t^~ 


I-KIN'IKD   IIV   VIHTUB   AND  CO.,   CITY    KOAU,    LONUtT 


^^jponi^ 


14  DAY  USE 

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